A view of bad road at Thiruneermalai Road, in Pallavaram, Chennai on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: R. RAVINDRAN

The Thiruneermalai Main Road is a major road linking several residential localities of Tambaram Corporation and the industrial units located in Pammal and Thirumudivakkam. The road branching off from the arterial GST Road is congested with heavy traffic during morning and evening rush hours with vehicles lined up on the road for several meters at the Thiruneermalai Road-GST Road junction. Moreover the presence of several leather units on the road leads to heavy vehicles movement on the stretch daily. 

While the traffic police of the Tambaram Police Commissionerate has taken steps of regulating traffic by putting in temporary medians to prevent lane jumping, and cutting off the right turn for vehicles coming from Thiruneermalai Road towards GST Road, it still has not helped much and motorists continue to battle traffic congestion at the junction. 

Adding to the woes of the motorists is the poor condition of the road caused by the digging up of the road for underground drainage (UGD) project being executed in Pammal and Anakaputhur by the Tambaram corporation. 

B. Saravanan, a resident of Lakshmi Nagar in Thiruneermalai, said the road is choked with heavy traffic during evening hours when heavy vehicles and buses transporting employees from the industrial units of Thirumudivakkam and Pammal line up at a stetch completely clogging both sides of the road, making it impossible for commuters to move ahead.

The road is also the link road to several stone quarries in Kundrathur and home to a few temples attracting hundreds of devotees during weekends. S. Aravamudhan, a devotee who visits the Vaishnavite temple in Thiruneermalai, wanted the State Highways department to widen the road to ease the traffic congestion.

A senior official of the Tambaram Corporation said the UGD work was in the final stages of completion and once it is completed the road would be paved by the State Highways department. 

 Sources in the Highways Department said that the Tambaram corporation had taken up UGD work on the Thiruneermalai Road and of the 3 km length, they had completed around 1.5 km. “Even as the work is progressing, they keep adding cuts in various places to add netwroks for houses and buildings. They have already deposited the amount meant for restoration of the road cuts. We will take up rectification as soon as they provide us with the completion certificate,” said an official.