It is now just over a month since the launch of the common app for all forms of public transport in the city. That has earned CUMTA encomiums and we are sure all of it is well-deserved. But the body could really do more, certainly in the real world.
Chennai resembles a vast battleground. There are massive digging operations all over the place and while we all understand that it is necessary to put up with some difficulties today for a better tomorrow, what we cannot comprehend is manifest lack of coordination among the various civic agencies, all of which seem to be hell bent on digging up the same roads at the same time. Surely, an august body like the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) can take on the task of coordination between then all and make life a little easier today, even while keeping a better tomorrow as the ultimate goal.
Take for instance Metrorail, the Highways Department, Metrowater, Traffic Police, the Corporation and TANGEDCO. All of them seem to be operating in silos. How else can you explain that in areas where Chennai Metrorail is undertaking massive underground drilling, there are flyovers being constructed in parallel? The entire Nandanam/Raj Bhavan/Guindy area faces massive traffic holdups each day chiefly because of Metrorail and the Highways working on the same stretch. Koyambedu is another example.
Similarly, at a time when Metrorail is forcing traffic movement through narrow bye lanes and streets, is it necessary for Metrowater or TANGEDCO to undertake excavation at the very same places? Of course, we do understand that some of these civic works may be of the nature of emergencies – say a burst pipeline or a malfunctioning cable that requires immediate attention. Should there not be signs put up well ahead of such hotspots so that commuting public know that these routes need to be avoided? More often than not, such signs are either non-existent or so tiny that they escape attention. The end result is massive traffic congestion, delays, and frayed tempers. It is impossible to accept that in the present day, with so much of technology at everyone’s disposal, there are no warning mechanisms for roadblocks. Yes, we agree Google maps exists, but not everyone can be clued on to the app while driving. We do need signboards. And the Traffic Police need to be tasked with this.
Next, we come to the very basic premise of a project like Metrorail. It is meant to encourage the use of public transport. Then, do we still need to be constructing flyovers? Should we not be dismantling them and getting people to use their cars less? On the other hand what is happening is that more and more flyovers are being constructed, with the promise of lesser commute times by car. This is nothing but an elitist solution that defeats the very purpose of Metrorail. CUMTA needs to intervene here and by means of statistical forecasts, work out how traffic hotspots can be decongested by encouraging patronage of public transport.
The world over, flyovers within cities have come to be seen as fairly useless additions that only serve to shift the congestion a little further ahead. In Chennai itself, the remnants of the roads by the side of the flyovers have become almost useless, so narrow being their spans. The whole exercise has been wasteful and such ideas are outmoded. It is necessary for CUMTA to ponder over this and in coordination with Metrorail, MRTS, MTC and Traffic Police, work out a master plan for the city’s traffic management that does not look at solutions for specific pockets with complete disregard to the larger picture of the city.