The clock tower at Royapettah, which is around 90 years old, is a witness to the transformation of the area over the decades. The tower is one of the busy junctions in Chennai, where Westcott Road, Pycrofts Road, Whites Road, and General Patters (GP) Road meet.
Yet, it is perhaps one of the few busy junctions in the city where traffic is not regulated through a signal. In fact, the junction has signals, which have blinking yellow lights, indicating to motorists to proceed with caution.
A sub-inspector of the Greater Chennai Traffic Police says the police had tried to operate the signal at the junction in the past, but it caused more congestion, with vehicles backing up. So, the option was dropped.
Reasons for congestion
The key contributors to the chaos at the junction are vehicles entering and exiting Express Avenue Mall, located at the corner of Whites Road and GP Road, and the alignment of Whites Road with Pycrofts Road, which forces the vehicles going straight from the former to the latter to take a slight deviation to the left before proceeding straight.
The stretch of GP Road at the entrance of the mall is narrower than the other three roads at the junction. The carriageway is further shrunk by autorickshaws waiting outside the mall and two-wheelers parked outside the commercial establishments on the opposite side of the road.
While there is a zebra crossing at the beginning of this stretch, vehicles rarely stop to allow pedestrians to cross the road without hassle. Adding to the congestion, vehicles coming out of Gate 4 of the mall often try to turn right towards the junction, despite the barricades put up by the police, thus slowing the traffic at peak hours. The poor condition of the road on this stretch worsens the situation.
‘Onus on the police’
An autorickshaw driver says the autorickshaws could not be moved away from the mall as they are dependent on the visitors for their livelihood. “The police are always present at the junction. This is one of the important spots where they catch vehicles for traffic violations. Can’t they focus more on regulating the traffic instead,” he asks.
The vehicles heading straight from Whites Road to Pycrofts Road have to briefly merge with the traffic flowing from Westcott Road to GP Road and then proceed straight. In the absence of a signal, this manoeuvre obstructs the free flow of traffic. Moreover, vehicle-riders coming from Whites Road to go straight or turn right and for those moving straight from Westcott Road to GP Road, the structure around the clock tower prevents them from seeing the vehicles coming from their left or right. To address these problems, it may not be a bad idea to reintroduce traffic signals at this junction.
