Denizens return to city after voting in native towns; Tambaram chokes
CHENNAI: Those who went to their home-towns to vote in the Lok Sabha elections held on April 19 returned to Chennai on Sunday evening, causing a massive traffic jam on the Tiruchy-Chennai National Highway until Monday morning.
This also affected the commute of thousands of passengers, who had arrived at Tambaram railway station by special trains after casting their votes to Chennai. They were stranded for a long time at the Tambaram GST Road bus stop.
Usually, during festive seasons like Deepavali and Pongal, traffic congestion occurs. Officials of the police and transport departments take measures to manage the situation. However, in this case, they had failed to provide adequate facilities for passengers who had returned to the city, leaving them stranded.
Passengers said that the officials should have provided additional buses and taken measures to manage the congestion, but they had failed to do so, causing them huge inconvenience, and adding to their frustration of travelling long hours in the summer heat and humidity.
Meanwhile, the railway administration had operated 10 special electric trains between Tambaram and Kattankulathur on Monday morning. This was done to ease the congestion on the Tambaram- Kattankulathur-Tambaram due to the large number of vehicles returning to Chennai after the elections. Since a large number of passengers arrived at Tambaram railway station by special trains, lack of road management led to bumper-to-bumper traffic, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded for a long time at the Tambaram GST Road bus stop.
The railway administration took immediate action and operated 5 special electric trains each from Tambaram to Kattankulathur and back from 4 am to 10:35 am on Monday. Similarly, 10 special electric trains were operated between Tambaram and Kattankulathur from 7:30 pm to 11 pm last night.
Passengers who came from out of Chennai by bus alighted at Potheri and Kattankulathur and took the electric trains. However, since there was no prior announcement about the operation of these trains, passengers were not aware of the service.
From now on, the railway administration has decided to operate 10 special electric trains daily between
Tambaram and Kattankulathur during peak hours. “If this continues, it will be a great convenience for passengers arriving at Tambaram railway station,” commuters opined.