Citizen Connect: Motorists irked over traffic piling up due to level crossing on Ennore High Road

Residents of Tondiarpet are irked over the long delay by the Chennai Corporation and the Southern Railway to take up the construction of a flyover to replace an existing railway level crossing on Ennore High Road at Korukkupet.

With the ongoing Metro rail work along Tiruvottiyur High Road, the motorists are using Ennore High Road to reach the city via Wall Tax Road. The Ennore High Road also provides shortest route to reach Central station from North Chennai, particularly Tiruvottiyur and Ennore localities. But, the closure of the railway level crossing on Ennore High Road leads to heavy traffic pile up in the narrow stretch.

K Prabhu, a resident of Tondiarpet, said that the rail level crossing is closed over a dozen times in a day the IOC to allow its petroleum containers to pass through, which delays the commuters by at least half an hour. “Since the Ennore High Road is a narrow one which could cater to two lanes traffic at the most, the traffic piles up for a long distance causing severe hardship to the public,” he said.

S Dhanpal, an auto rickshaw driver said that even before the train arrives, the gate is closed for nearly 15 to 20 minutes, which affects school children and office goers who get late. “We have often seen ambulances caught in the traffic when the level crossing is closed. This problem can only be solved when a flyover is constructed to smoothen the flow of traffic,” he said.

AVS Marimuthu, a civic activist, blamed politicians and the civic body officials for neglecting the locality by not constructing an overbridge to replace the railway level crossing. “The seven-kilometre Ennore High Road should have been developed a long time ago to decongest the Tiruvottiyur High Road and Beach Road, but the officials failed to do so. And now, people continue to suffer because of heavy traffic,” he said.

An official from the Greater Chennai Corporation said that the work on the flyover to replace the level crossing could not be taken up as they were yet to get permission from the traffic police. “The traffic police asked us to provide an alternative route before blocking traffic on the Ennore High Road for the flyover work,” the official said.