Vehicles parked outside popular restaurants on Anna Salai are creating traffic snarls, especially at the GP Road-Anna Salai signal. Crossing the signal and moving towards Blackers Road through Dams Road has become a nightmare for commuters, especially at peak hours. The refurbished Bilal Hotel is attracting good crowds at lunch and evening hours, and the crowds cause bottlenecks.
Likewise, people heading to the Spencer Plaza signal from the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital and Wallajah Road find it difficult to navigate the traffic at evenings and nights because of the vehicles parked in front of a row of hotels.
Moving at snail’s pace
“Vehicles come to this junction from GP Road and turn towards Dams Road. At the same time, vehicles from Wallajah Road and from Anna Salai make a U-turn at this junction. This is not safe at all,” says an employee who works in a sticker company near the junction.
GP Road is two-way now. With vehicles parked for repairs on either side of the road, the traffic moves at a snail’s pace.
“At times, people park their vehicles near the Dargah-e-Hazrath Syed Moosa Shah Qadri Baghdadi, also known as Mount Road Dargah. This leads to minor traffic jams. And there is a bus stop on Dams Road. So, every time a bus stops here, the vehicles behind have to wait or move slowly. All buses heading towards Broadway cross this stop,” says Muthuraj, who takes the road every day to his office at George Town. “Even to enter Tarapore Towers or the Head Post Office, one has to take a detour,” he adds.
Bus conductors echo this view. “The buses coming from the Spencer Plaza signal slow down at this junction. Though the wait period at this junction has come down after a signal was installed, it still takes time to enter Dams Road. It is always chaos here,” says a bus driver.
Commuters say Blackers Road gets choked because of the vehicles parked by those visiting Ritchie Street, the grey market in electronics goods. “Some solution has to be worked out to ensure that the traffic does not get stagnated,” says the proprietor of a clothing shop on Anna Salai.
‘Deploy traffic police’
Commuters say no vehicles should be allowed to be parked in front of the hotels here. At night, the cars are parked, right on the middle of the road, in front of every hotel. The traffic police must be deployed at peak hours and nights to ensure that vehicles move without hassle.
While the signal at the junction has eased the congestion, the vehicles turning right from Anna Salai into GP Road and those making a U-turn at the signal cause inconvenience, some road-users say.
