Driving through chennai traffic

It's been just a couple of days since 've returned from Chennai and I have still not recovered from the chaotic traffic scene. While it's been close to a year since 've been in Singapore, I would say that the traffic in Chennai must have doubled during this time, given that there are so many completed and upcoming projects, especially IT companies that house tens of thousands of people all over the country and some even from abroad.

Best examples would be GN Chetty Road, Venkat Narayana Road both in T.Nagar, having 6-7 new buildings that have come up in less than 2 years and probably holding up ten to fifteen thousand employees. This apart from the floating crowd around T.Nagar who are busy shopping in Pothy's, Chennai Silks, RMKV, Saravana Stores, Nalli, Kumaran and Sri Krishna Collections.

The 100 feet road on Ekkaduthangal which was once not so popular with old and sick industries, now boasts buildings with more than one lakh square feet. While Olympia Tech Park and Virtusa are completed and occupied, the other two projects are close to the heels of completion which would only add to the chaos. No special mention for Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur which are neighbours to the OMR.

Adding to the already chatotic traffic is the coming up of 5-6 flyovers across critical junctions in chennai. Koyambedu, T.Nagar, Kodambakkam and Kathipara Junction to name a few.

However, mature areas like Nungambakkam and most importantly Mount Road, once considered to be the life lines of Chennai city were scantily crowded. These were clear indications in the shift or transformation of the profession to Information Technology and IT Enabled Sector for the new breed.

While setting the traffic scene right in Chennai looks next to impossible, it is important that law and order is at its best. Something that I doubt would happen in Chennai in the next 200 years ;-) The above collage, which I managed to grab from flickr and google are clear indicators of what I mean. While it is true that the traffic scene in Chennai cannot be set right overnight, there are'nt any indications that it would be any better in a decade or two. The only way I guess is to stiffen up the law and order scene by imposing heavy fines of say 1000 or even 5000 buck for traffic violation which probably would frighten the crazy Chennai motorists, especially the auto and two wheelers, not to forget the buses and heavy vehicles and the cars...and everyone infact!

Wait, I have another idea to set the traffioc scene right in chennai. It would be to have all the political flags and sirens removed from the politicians vehicles and let then drive through the above areas with no escorts in the front or rear of their vehicles, what say???