Traffic mess goes out of control, city police in a fix

MADURAI: With Diwali just around the corner, the city’s busy shopping areas are filled with festival shoppers from all parts thronging them and police are finding it difficult to manage the one lakh vehicles that come there daily. Police say the spurt in the increasing number of shoppers and vehicles is due to the advent of several new popular textile showrooms.
Areas like Simmakkal, East Gate, South Veli Street, Kamarajar Salai, Vilakuthoon among others are filled with shopping public, and to add to the woes, hawkers too have started occupying the major roads with their goods. While the shopping public is ready to put up with the unruly traffic, tourists visiting the temple are the ones who are put to much inconvenience. “We were sent on a wild goose chase around the temple by the police in spite of telling them that we wanted to go to the temple,” said R Navaneethan of Kovilpatti. He was among a group of tourists which had unknowingly entered the roads around the temple, in a car.
Traffic police sources say that with two-wheeler numbers in Madurai touching the nine lakh mark, at least one-fourth of them are concentrated around major shopping areas during the festival season. “Madurai’s car parks are limited with the major one situated on the North Avani Moola street. As soon as it gets filled up, vehicles are sent to the railway station car park and then to one near the Jhansi Rani park. These vehicles cause heavy congestion during movement,” police said
They said the opening of some new major textile showrooms in the heart of the city was another reason for the heavy traffic. “Many of the shoppers are coming in droves by trains from places like Tirunelveli and Ramanathapuram and add to the traffic. Some shops have not less than thousand people going in and coming out at the same time,” said a police officer.
To tackle this, police have also sought the help of home guards and traffic wardens.
Assistant commandant general of home guards, P Karmegamani, said that while about 35 members are regularly deployed for traffic management to help the city police, the strength was doubled or even increased to 100 during this festive season. They work under the assistant commissioners of traffic for north and south.
Traffic sense is something that should be taken seriously by the public, according to him. “They just come in two-wheelers, park the vehicle in some no-parking zone in any direction and leave,” he said. One such bad motorist is enough to disrupt the entire traffic movement in the entire area. “Police should also intensify their patrolling and penalty should be imposed strictly to overcome this problem,” he said.
Karmegamani said that while they have been able to bring down crime rates during festival seasons in the last eight years, it was also important for the public to adhere to the rules. “We cannot ask women not to wear chains, but at least they can wear it in a concealed manner. Handbags should also not be slung on the back and must be kept tucked under the hands,” he said.
Police sources said that it would be better if they are also consulted whenever no-objection certificates are issued for shops within the city by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, which is the approving authority for shops within the city limits.