City crawls as thousands march to Besant Nagar church

Despite a similar situation last year, pilgrims and motorists complained that city police did not make any arrangements to keep the traffic flow unaffected.

The stretches such as LB Road, MG Road, Besant Nagar 1st Main Road, 7th Avenue junction, 6th Avenue, 4th Main Road junction, 4th Main Road - 3rd Avenue junction witnessed huge traffic jams as pilgrims left no space for vehicles. The pilgrims from all over the places like St Thomas Mount, Egmore, Periamet, Kilpauk, Perambur and other areas in north Chennai walked to the church leading to a traffic snarl on the arterial Anna Salai.

Motorists who had to pass by Adyar had a terrible day as it took them more than an hour to get out of traffic snarl. Traffic jams on Sardar Patel Road, Besant Avenue, Durgabai Desmukh Road, DGS Dinakaran Salai, C P Ramasamy Road and San Thome High Road threw life out of gear. By evening bus stops witnessed huge crowds of school children, college students and office goers stranded as Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses could not ply on time.

However, a senior traffic police official from Adyar said that they deployed adequate policemen on vital points to manage the vehicle movement.

The church festival is scheduled for 10 days.

Meanwhile, the annual feast of the Shrine Basilica, Our Lady of Good Health, in Nagapattinam one of the biggest Catholic pilgrimage centres in the country,  began with the holy flag-hoisting ceremony. The flag of ‘Ave Maria’ was hoisted by Most Rev. Dr. M.Devadass Ambrose, Bishop of Thanjavur, followed by litany, benediction and mass in Tamil in the shrine auditorium amidst chanting of prayers by thousands of devotee.

Earlier, the 22-ft long and 14-ft broad Ave Maria flag was taken in procession around the church.

The most important event of ‘Birthday of Our Blessed Mother’ and concelebrated Feast Mass will be held on September 8, the final day of the annual feast. The event would be presided over by Most Rev.Dr.Nazarene Soosai, Bishop of Kottar.

High mass in Tamil, English, Marathi, Konkani, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi would be conducted every day in the basilica from morning till evening during the 11-day feast.

Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation is operating special buses from various destinations to Velankanni and the Southern Railway have also arranged special passenger trains for the feast.

Since the terrorists threat, an additional of 2000 police personnel have been deployed for security in and around the church.

Around 600 CCTV cameras have been installed and being monitored round the clock. While six check posts are established in all the entry places and the police are allowing the devotees only after the thorough inspection. Along with the district police, fire and rescue personnel and marine police are deployed on duty round the clock.