Manufacturing hub chokes in traffic jams and infra bottlenecks

CHENNAI: One of the largest Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, Sriperumbudur has a whopping 24.3 lakh electorate. The seat assumes importance because of its proximity to the state capital and the presence of high-value manufacturing units, including motor vehicle plants.

The Constituency has witnessed 15 Lok Sabha elections from 1962 onwards after it was carved out into a separate seat. The DMK has won nine times while Congress and AIADMK won three times each in all these elections.

Inundation during during monsoon is one of the major concerns of the consistency. Mudichur, Varadharajapuram, Tambaram, CTO Colony, Chromepet and Adyar River beds are prone to flooding every year, leaving the people in a lurch. “Political party leaders promise each time that a permanent solution for flooding would be arrived at. But many elections have passed with the situation getting worse,” said George, an activist from Mudichur.

Another issue is the traffic jams, as the constituency is one of the access routes for commuters to reach Chennai. The GST Road is getting choked every day during peak hours, people lament. Works for the Perungalathur flyover, which was started a decade ago, is still going on. The junctions in Perungalathur, Tambaram, Chromepet, Pallavaram, and Vandalur would turn into a nightmare for the commuters owing to severe traffic jams. Residents are demanding to extend Metro rail from Tirusulam to Kilambakkam but there are no signs of it any time soon.

A Tambaram resident Karthikeyan said it takes more than an hour to reach Pallavaram from Vandalur during the peak hours. “Metro rail connectivity would make travel easier and quicker. It would help people reach their destination hassle-free,” he added. The Perungalathur flyover work is also expected to take another two years to get completed fully, complicating infrastructural issues.

The residents have resigned themselves to their fate that whoever comes to rule. The traffic jam problem is going to be the same and political parties which promised a solution have failed to keep up their promise, locals allege.The people of Maduravoyal and Ambattur are upset with TR Baalu claiming he is not concentrating on their areas attending to issues.

However, the DMK party has the upper hand in Sriperumbudur Constituency as the current ruling party has clinched victory nine times in the Lok Sabha elections. The sitting MP TR Baalu has contested in Sriperumbudur in the 2009 and 2019 elections and has won both times and is now all set to contest for the third time. In 2019 TR Baalu defeated PMK candidate A Vaithilingam by a huge margin of around 5 lakh votes.In this election, Premkumar will be contesting for AIADMK, Venugopal for TMC, and Ravichandran for NTK in Sriperumbudur Constituency.

While the competition is between the DMK and AIADMK, NTK supporters are confident that they will be getting more votes from the youngsters this election.