CHENNAI: Senior citizens of NV Natarajan Nagar at Thirumangalam are in a state of crisis. And it is not the usual mid-life crisis that one faces at home. Rather, the crisis has crept into their day to day existence from outside their homes with the construction of a flyover at the Thirumangalam junction by the State Highways department.“At this age, we are risking our lives trying to cross the Jawaharlal Nehru Road for the sake of the safety of our grandchildren,” Jaya (61) said. Hundreds of children from this locality are studying in different schools around Anna Nagar, who must cross the road near the Thirumangalam junction to enter NV Natarajan Nagar.According to Jaya, a resident of NVN Nagar who runs a free day care centre there, the hectic traffic congestion in the wake of the construction work for the flyover has narrowed down the space for movement of pedestrians. “With vehicles lined up one after the other, we are struggling to cross the road with the little ones, which at times takes even more than half an hour. Besides, life has become miserable, after the vehicles have started to enter the by-lanes in our area to escape from the traffic jams,” she added.Thousands of people like Jaya using the arterial Jawaharlal Nehru Road are put to hardships with vehicles either piling up along the stretch, barely leaving any space for pedestrians to squeeze through, or moving at break neck speed making it dangerous to cross the road with a child. The most affected among them are the hapless Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus crew members, particularly during the peak hours.Selvaraj, an MTC driver who uses the Jawaharlal Nehru Road regularly, laments that his work hours are stretched by at least two additional hours due to the utter traffic chaos. He said, “The running time between Guindy and Kumaran Nagar is one hour and ten minutes. Now, it takes about 45 minutes to travel from Kendra Vidhyalaya to the Thirumangalam signal, a distance of less then 500 metres.”Even the auto drivers avoid the section. Palani, an auto rickshaw driver at Koyembedu, said, “If somebody requests us to drop them at Thirumangalam, we would in turn reject the customer, instead of taking the risk of getting caught in traffic for more than 30 minutes without any gain.”The motorists and residents of Thirumangalam urged the authorities to regulate the vehicles and utilise the other roads cutting across Anna Nagar to reduce traffic, till the construction work is over.
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