Visitors to an Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) retail outlet of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), near Kamarajapuram bus stop on Velachery Main Road, are at the centre of a traffic choas. Customers park their cycles, two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws or cars in a haphazard manner at the bus stop, putting bus commuters and other road users to great inconvenience.
After sun set, tipplers almost take over the bus stop, sleeping on its benches. As a result, commuters wait a little distance away from the bus stop. Due to haphazard parking of vehicles, pedestrians are forced to walk in the carriageway of the busy Velachery Main Road.
“Some visitors to the shop buy liquor and consume it standing near the bus stop. Commuters find this behavious nauseating and scary,” says K. Krishnan, a resident of Rajakilpakkam. Repeated pleas to the Kancheepuram district administration and Chennai Traffic Police (CTP) to ensure the vehicles are parked in a dedicated parking area have gone in vain.
A CTP personnel says, “We have been warning customers against parking their vehicles at the bus stop. We will soon tow away the vehicles.” A Kancheepuram district administration official says, “We have not received any complaint so far. Steps will be taken if people make any representation.”