Vijayanagar Junction, a case of urban planning gone wrong

Wrong location: The bus terminus being built at Vijayanagar in Velachery causes traffic snarls. There is a plea for shifting the bus terminus to a spot near the Velachery MRTS Station.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

The Vijayanagar Junction at Velachery is a classic example of chaotic urban planning. When a flyover was conceived, the lakhs of people using the junction thought it would help to ease traffic. The flyover connects the arterial Velachery Main Road, Bypass Road, and Taramani Link Road with two arms. But the Vijayanagar Junction finds itself choked with heavy traffic. The residents, who had suffered a lot when the flyover was built, hoped for the traffic congestion to be gone forever after it was opened. But there are huge traffic snarls at the junction, causing severe hardship to motorists, even as the flyover remains free.

‘Not well-thought-out’

Residents are upset that engineers and planners of the State Highways Department lacked the foresight to build a flyover facilitating two-way traffic. At present, one-way traffic is allowed on both arms of the flyover: Taramani Link Road to Bypass and Bypass to Velachery Main Road. Social activists point to the presence of the Vijayanagar bus terminus right at the signal junction, resulting in traffic snarls throughout the day. The residents say the bus terminus narrows the road width and the parking of buses causes severe traffic jams.

N. Mithilesh, a motorist from Madipakkam, points to a huge traffic jam on the three sides of the junction and the utter chaos at the junction itself at morning and evening peak hours. He says the signal junction branching off to Velachery Main Road and Taramani Link Road is congested mainly because of the presence of the bus terminus. If it is a bus stop, the traffic will move faster. Since it is a bus terminus, four-five buses are parked on the western side of the junction, and they cause traffic jams.

Encroachment by auto stands

Residents’ welfare activist S. Kumararaja says the bus terminus adjacent to the signal junction is the main reason for the traffic getting choked regularly, besides the encroachment by autorickshaw stands and vendors outside the bus terminus. Ample space is available on both sides of the Velachery MRTS Station. If the bus terminus is shifted there, the traffic congestion will come down and the use of public transport will increase, he says. If the Transport Department is not keen on shifting the bus terminus, at least the buses could be parked on the vacant land belonging to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department on Taramani Link Road.

Resident welfare activists in the locality point out that the Transport Department is constructing a new bus terminus at a cost of ₹3 crore. They say that if this money is spent on building a bus terminus near the Velachery MRTS station, the traffic congestion will be minimised and the thousands of commuters using the MRTS will have direct bus services to various destinations.

The MRTS station, adjacent to the Velachery Main Road and the southern extension of the Inner Ring Road leading to the GST Road through the Thillai Ganga Nagar subway, is strategically located. It has ample two-wheeler parking space, a service road from Velachery Main Road, and the station service road linking the Velachery and Taramani MRTS Stations.

Residents say that if the Velachery bus terminus is shifted near the MRTS station, buses can be operated smoothly. At present, not many buses are operated on the Inner Ring Road. Once the bus terminus is shifted, more buses can be run towards Ullagaram, Puzhuthivakkam, Nanganallur, and Alandur, all thickly populated residential areas. Furthermore, with the MRTS extension towards St. Thomas Mount set to be completed and the Metro Rail network being built on the Medavakkam Main Road, multi-modal public transport would be available for the commuters. The operation of buses on the station service road linking the Perungudi and Taramani railway stations towards the Information Technology Corridor would help in attracting more passengers to the MRTS. At present, the Perungudi and Taramani stations do not have the last-mile connectivity.

Senior citizens of the locality also remember that the Vijayanagar bus terminus was previously located near the MRTS station where the rail overbridge has been constructed on Velachery Main Road and the vacant land has been allotted for the construction of a bus terminus on the southern side of the railway station.

Stake-holders failed

R. Santosh, a resident of Madipakkam, says that when vacant lots and amenities are available for multi-modal transport, it is disappointing that the stakeholders have failed to come together to create the facility by shifting the bus terminus. A senior official of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) says the suggestion to shift the bus terminus to a spot near the Velachery MRTS Station would be examined.