An evening walk along the wide footpaths sheltered by lush green trees on the Police Commissioner’s Office Road in Egmore, leading up to Udupi Home hotel, may sound appealing to some. But residents of the area and frequent road-users know better.
The stretch — lined with eateries, offices, and apartment complexes on either side — can be nothing short of an obstacle course at peak hours, with motorists swerving across the footpaths to beat the traffic at the Egmore signal (commonly known as the Udupi Home signal), which connects the Police Commissioner’s Office Road, Tamil Salai, Gandhi-Irwin Road, and Dr. Nair Bridge towards the Periyar EVR High Road.
Anandhi Moorthy, a resident of Egmore’s Veerasamy Street, who takes the road in the evenings while returning from work, describes the walk as a “journey rife with jump scares”. “The footpaths are almost on the same level as the road itself. So, it is easy for motorists to ride on top of them. It can get very difficult for pedestrians,” she says.
The Egmore signal is infamously known to be a busy one, as it is populated with several iconic restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, banks, hospitals (like the City Police Hospital and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology), as well as government offices. One would need to cross the signal to get to the Egmore railway station on the Gandhi-Irwin Road.
“The peak hours in the mornings are between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. and in the evenings between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.,” says S. Karthikeya, a traffic police officer stationed at the signal.
At any given time, the signal is managed by two traffic police personnel, including a sub-inspector, he adds. “In the morning, the traffic is incoming from Dr. Nair Bridge to the Police Commissioner’s Office Road. In the evening, it goes in the reverse direction. Meanwhile, the traffic from Tamil Salai to Gandhi-Irwin Road usually depends on train timings, as the railway station is located here,” Mr. Karthikeya says. The ongoing road work on Tamil Salai has also been slowing down the traffic, he adds.
Senthil Kumar, proprietor of a well-known restaurant on the Police Commissioner’s Office Road, attributes the frequent jams to narrow roads.
“The stretch is quite narrow for the heavy footfall it experiences,” he says, adding: “If I leave for the restaurant at peak hours, I will be caught in the traffic for at least 15 minutes, sometimes even 30.” Mr. Kumar further says the traffic at the peak hours often hinders customer movement at the restaurant “as most of them struggle to find parking”.
On the other hand, Mohammed Abdul Waheed, an autorickshaw driver who lives at Chetpet, says he tries to avoid the Egmore signal in the mornings and evenings. “I try to take alternative routes and take this road if only I have an unavoidable trip, or during the weekends, when the traffic is low.”
The Tamil Salai-Gandhi-Irwin Road stretch is a no-stop lane, but motorists, especially autorickshaw and cab drivers, tend to pick up and drop passengers on the road, hindering the traffic, says Mr. Karthikeya.
“While some motorists attempt to cross the signal via the wrong side from under Dr. Nair Bridge, we make sure to catch them and penalise them,” he says. The signal also has a ‘no right turn’ sign, which most road-users tend not to violate, he says.
The stretch has no-parking zones, which motorists often occupy illegally , says Ms. Moorthy.
Published – September 22, 2024 11:52 pm IST