This signal is located on a road that is taken by the multitudes from the south to reach the Marina beach, Chepauk, Parry’s Corner and beyond.
During the afternoons, the Kutcheri Road-Santhome High Road signal may seem a very ordinary one with hardly any vehicle passing through. Large old trees provide an ample shade to pedestrians.
Come peak hour and the scene changes. It becomes an extremely busy hub segregating traffic to Mylapore, the beach and Marina Loop Road — the last one through a small lane next to the Santhome Cathedral.
The number of pedestrians is too high at this junction. “From 7.15 a.m. to 8.30 a.m., an almost exact time when the six schools start, thousands of children, parents, school vans and other vehicles fight for space. It is the same story when the schools close in the evening. Though there are policemen near the schools, crossing the signal takes a lot of time. Staggering the school timings would help. Vehicles other than those that have work on Santhome High Road must be diverted through Marina Loop Road,” says advocate V. Rajkumar, who takes the road daily.
After school hours, as the traffic picks up at office hours, the road gets busy all over again.
The road is too narrow and has accident-prone curves. Four lanes are hardly enough for the volume of traffic it carries. Though roads like Poonamallee High Road and Anna Salai have been widened many times, no steps have been taken to widen this one.
“The institutions along the road must sit with the police and other authorities and decide a course of action. With increasing population and vehicles, the road needs to be widened,” says T. Raghunathan, a resident of Mylapore.
Though there have been multiple announcements on widening of the road, nothing has come out.
The police at the most divert traffic on Marina Loop Road, to the chagrin of the fishing communities living alongside.
They have been demanding that Santhome High Road be widened and they be left undisturbed.
