Motorists are doing a balancing act while navigating a stretch of the Poonamalle High (PH) Road — between Maduravoyal and Koyembedu — which often results in accidents.
Bitumen having considerably peeled off the road surface, motorists try to manoeuvre their vehicles onto narrow slivers of the road where bitumen is still intact, in the process setting themselves up for collisions with vehicles tailgating them.
Unlike other portions on the PH Road, the stretch between Koyembedu and Maduravoyal have remained in bad condition for many months now. The stretch is a key link to the central parts of the city via Kilpauk and Egmore and receives over one lakh vehicles every day .
During the day, hundreds of buses belonging to the Metropolitan Transport Corporation and educational institutionstake the less-congested PH Road to avoid traffic at Ambattur Industrial Estate Road, Jawaharlal Nehru (JN) Main Roadand Chennai – Tiruvallur High (CTH) Road.
As a result, , PH Road has become not only busy, but also considerably accident-prone. “Vehicles suddenly apply the brakes after noticing an uneven surface and try to move to the levelled portion of the road. Such a sudden and unexpected movement takes the motorists who are following by surprise, which leads to accidents,” said K. Ramkumar, a motorist from Thiruverkadu near Maduravoyal.
A few months ago, traffic police attached to the Maduravoyal and Koyembedu police stations along the stretch placed logs of dry long palm trees, unused concrete boulders, steel barricades, small concrete slabs as median on the stretch between Maduravoyal and Koyembedu to prevent accidents. However, until the road is levelled, it will not serve the purpose. “With the elevated project work put in cold storage, the State Highways Departmen, which maintains the stretch has not even done routine maintenance including carrying out repairs on the damaged portions of the road between Maduravoyal and Koyembedu. We are trying to prevent accidents by monitoring the speed of the vehicles,” said a traffic police officer.
The work on the Rs. 1,800 crore Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Corridor has not re-started due to objection from the Public Works Department against constructing concrete pillars on the Coovum river.
