Encroached streets irk Ayanavaram residents

CHENNAI: Residents of two streets in

Ayanavaram

are exasperated. Repeated complaints against encroachments and illegal parking of vehicles on

Raju Street

and

Water Tank Road

have been in vain and long traffic snarls have become a regular feature, they complain.

Things were fine for a short period when Karan Singha was police commissioner and travelled along the two streets from his Secretariat Colony residence to his office every day, they say. Why can police, who ensured the area was free of encroachments and illegally parked vehicles, make the arrangement permanant, they wonder.

E Sathyanarayan, who lives in the area, said the roads had been extended during the mayoral term of M Subramanian and now the extended stretch too was encroached upon. “Earlier there were no bus services. Now, a bus from Anna Nagar to Aminjikarai plys on this route where illegal parking has hampered free movement. Police should ensure that the vehicles, which belong to outsiders and are parked here for days and, sometimes, months, are removed,” he said.

Others said that it was almost impossible to cross the stretch during the rush hour in the morning and evening, with schoolchildren, women and senior citizens being the most affected. They are forced on to the middle of the road where vehicles whizzing past posed a grave threat.

One part of the stretch had been converted into a bar by drunks and the other was used by a private transport service to park its buses, hampering traffic movement, they said. Francis Martin, a resident, said police had to take immediate action to remove these unauthorised vehicles. “The hundreds of schoolchildren who use the stretch find it difficult and are at risk of being knocked down by vehicles,” he said.

Mohamed Ghouse

of

V P Colony Extension

said it was baffles why police were not able to initiate action against the owners of the vehicles parked in the area. “Some of them have been her for years we suspect they could have been involved in criminal offences. People just park their vehicles here and disappear. It is time police swung into action and removed the vehicles and ensure free movement of traffic on this stretch,” Ghouse said.