Stalin seeks action plan to decongest city traffic within fortnight

CHENNAI: Concerned over increasing vehicular traffic on city roads and some sections getting choked as a result, deputy chief minister M K Stalin on Monday held discussion with senior bureaucrats and city planners at a meeting for traffic improvement and development of the city aimed at decongesting arterial roads.
At the end of two-hour discussion with top officials including chief secretary K S Sripathi and mayor M Subramanian at the Secretariat, Stalin ordered setting up of a core group headed by transport commissioner S Machendranathan and asked it to submit an action plan within a fortnight.
The city and suburban police commissioners, corporation commissioner, member-secretary of the CMDA and additional commissioner of police (traffic) will be part of the team, which will identify important suggestions that are feasible to implement.
"After the inauguration of the Kathipara grade separator, traffic has considerably come down in Saidapet area. But some parts of the city like Adyar, Alwarpet and Koyambedu continue to experience traffic snarls during peak hours. Our aim is to ease the congestion and reduce travel time from one place to other in city," Stalin told TOI.
The CMDA has conducted various studies on city traffic from time to time and other organisations had also done some studies. The core committee will soon sit and cull out some of the salient features of these studies for immediate action.
"Some roads need to be made one-way and in some cases we need to revert to two-way traffic. The committee will go into all aspects. As work on the Metro rail project gather pace soon, we need to have a detailed traffic plan. As medium and long-term plans we are also planning to construct more flyovers in vital junctions," Stalin further said.
The CMDA and the city police have received suggestions from public. "What all are feasible will be implemented immediately," said a senior official.
Though the meeting did not discuss area-specific issues, it asked the committee to come up with a holistic plan in the order of priority as far as city and suburban areas are concerned, sources said.
A recent study conducted by the highways department pointed out that the stretch between Nandanam and DMS witnessed the highest vehicular movement and the congestion on 100 Feet road in Vadapalani was heavy. The Periyar EVR Road (Poonamalee high road) too was often choked with high vehicular density.