Citizen Connect: Pothole ridden Chennai-Bengaluru highway creates traffic congestion

The pothole-ridden junction of the Chennai Bengaluru Highway and Poonamallee Pattabiram High Road poses a challenge to motorists as it witnesses heavy traffic all through the day.

Due to the battered intersection, vehicles move bumper-to-bumper at the junction, especially in the directions towards Koyambedu, where the problem is highly pronounced. With poor lighting along the stretch, motorists find it difficult to see the roadclearly, thereby ending up driving their vehicles over the potholes.

Every day, on an average, more than 1.5 lakh vehicles, including MTC buses and heavy vehicles from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, use the intersection on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway. “Once we crossed the Sriperumbudur toll plaza, the traffic slows down because of heavy movement of vehicles and due to pothole-ridden road. The traffic slows down further at the intersection of the Outer Ring Road at Nazratpet. When you reach the intersection of the Poonamallee Pattabiram High Road, the traffic comes to a halt with the vehicles trying to avoid the huge potholes in the middle of the highway,” said S Keerthivasan who works at a consumer electronics manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur industrial belt.

Liakath Hussain, a driver of a private company bus said that the National Highways Authority of India, which collects toll from the road users, should immediately relay the pothole-ridden portion of the highway. The toll road of the Sriperumbudur-Wallajah stretch of the highway ends near Maduravoyal. “The traffic police should not allow traffic from the Poonamallee-Pattabiram high road to take right on the highway to reach Sriperumbudur. Instead, the vehicles from the Pattabiram side should be made to take U-turn beneath the flyover near the Saveetha Dental College,” he said.

NHAI official said that they have already started work to lay concrete road for 100 meters on either side ofthe junction to avoid frequent damage of the highway near the intersections.