Chennai: Bumpy roads riddled with potholes, illegal parking and wrong-side driving have turned the 5km stretch between Porur junction and Vadapalani Metro station into a daily ordeal for motorists. The stretch, used by at least 10,000 vehicles a day, should take about 15 minutes to cover but often takes nearly 40 minutes.Arcot Road, which branches off Mount Poonamallee Road near Porur junction was congested on Sunday. “Earlier this was due to the Chennai Metro Rail work between Porur junction and Vadapalani. But now the work is nearly done and most of the girders are in place. Yet there was traffic,” said S K Govindaraj, a resident of Saligramam.While the metro work has narrowed the carriageway at several points, motorists say poor road conditions and indiscriminate parking are adding to the problem. At several locations, nearly 50 cars were parked on both sides of the road, leaving about half of the 40ft wide carriageway for moving traffic.Several stretches of the road have not been relaid. Highways officials earlier said road restoration would be taken up after the major metro structural works were completed and before the northeast monsoon. However, large damaged patches and potholes remain near the Valasaravakkam zone office and a private hospital near Vadapalani bus depot. On the Porur-bound side, stormwater drain construction by Greater Chennai Corporation adds to the bottlenecks.The congestion is particularly severe during the evening peak hours, with the stretch also serving several schools, commercial establishments and residential areas. “There are about six private schools and four corporation schools on this stretch. With no pavements at several places, shops have taken over portions of the road for informal parking. GCC and highways department should penalise such establishments and create proper footpaths,” said G Ramakrishnan, a retired high court advocate and resident of Vadapalani.M Saravanan, a transport activist and resident of Porur, said authorities should adopt a phased traffic management plan while completing the remaining metro and drainage work. “Traffic police can introduce temporary lane segregation and one-way movement at bottleneck points, while barricading work zones to maintain a minimum carriageway. Once sections are completed, the road should be restored through full-width resurfacing rather than patchwork,” he said.GCC officials said footpaths could not be provided at certain locations because of the limited road width between Vadapalani bus terminus and Vadapalani junction. SWD work is being carried out for about 1.2km between Kamaraj Statue and Vadapalani junction. Work has been completed for around 600m. Officials said steps were being taken to complete it before the monsoon.Despite several attempts, highways officials were unavailable for comment.
