Citizen Connect: Container trucks eat up space, affect traffic flow on Ponneri High Road

The two-lane Ponneri High Road connecting Minjur and Manali was widened into a six-lane with service road on either side as part of the Chennai-Ennore Port Connectivity project. Though the widening of the roads eased the movement of the vehicles, the haphazard parking of the containers on the main carriageway leads to bottlenecks in both the Ponneri High Road and Ennore Expressway.

Thousands of the trucks use the Ponneri High Road daily to transport containers between the Chennai port and the container terminal located in the Northern suburbs of the city. The slow moving container trucks cause traffic snarls throughout the day, especially during peak hours.

It makes commute difficult for  people residing in Manali, Andarkuppam, Manali New Town and beyond.

“We can’t use the service roads on either side of the Ponneri High Road and Ennore Expressway as the trucks remain parked throughout the day. The drivers would park the container trucks even in the main carriageway obstructing traffic flow. But police seem to be not acting on the erring drivers,” said L Hussain, a resident of Manali New Town.

Meanwhile, drivers cite inadequate parking space as the reason for leaving the vehicles on the road. S Shankar, a resident of Andarkuppam said that the haphazard parking of the trucks even leads to accidents. “The Ponneri High Road witness fatal accidents involving two-wheelers quite often. Most of the time it was due to haphazard parking of the trucks that caused the accident,” he said.

K Arun, another resident, said that police should not allow the trucks to encroach upon the service roads. “Since the traffice is usually fast in the main road, local residents can stick to using the service road if the trucks aren’t parked there,” he said.

A traffic policeman at the junction of Inner Ring Road and the Ponneri High Road said that the patrol vehicles usually go around the highway and whenever they see trucks parked on the main carriageway, the drivers are be asked to move their vehicles. “We also impose fines on drivers for parking vehicles hapharzardly,” the policeman said.