It is more than two months since a new traffic plan was put in place, but that does not seem to have had much of an impact on vehicular movement at Mint junction. The intersection is witnessing more chaos with motorists coming from Wall Tax Road having to wait up to the Kondithope police station-cum-quarters, a distance of around half-a-kilometre, for longer time, especially during rush hour, every day.
Motorists say that traffic chaos continues at the Mint junction despite the introduction of the new traffic plan, due to the lack of any corresponding changes in the existing traffic movement on the narrow Basin Bridge flyover.
The existing traffic route at Basin Bridge flyover continues with vehicles including buses and Corporation garbage lorries coming from all three directions – Choolai, Perambur and Mint – having to halt at the narrow tri-junction on the bridge. Due to this, movement of vehicles, especially those from Wall Tax Road, slow down.
“We have to wait at least for half-an-hour on Wall Tax Road to pass through the Mint junction due to the sluggish traffic movement on the bridge. Only when the traffic movement at the tri-junction on the bridge is eased, vehicles on the Wall Tax Road can move freely,” says K. Nandakumar, a motorist from Park Town.
Motorists say that as an alternative arrangement for easing the traffic movement on the bridge, motorists coming from Perambur who are allowed to take a right turn at the tri-junction on the bridge to reach Choolai should be allowed to take a ‘U’-turn beyond Mint junction because only few motorists take a ‘right’ turn to go towards Choolai. But, this right turn holds up traffic on other directions especially on Wall Tax Road where the flow of vehicles including goods-laden lorries and MTC buses is high.
At present, the junction is manned by a team of eight traffic police personnel, including four traffic sub-inspectors, round-the-clock to ensure the new traffic plan works smoothly.
Police sources say that the major reason for the introduction of the new traffic plan at the junction is due to the closure of Elephant Gate bridge that eased the traffic pressure at the Basin Bridge junction all these years.
Except for motorcycles, no vehicles, including pushcarts and bull carts, are allowed on the dilapidated Elephant Gate bridge since 2018 when the Southern Railway announced that it would reconstruct the bridge along with the Chennai Corporation.
The facts about the plan
As per the new traffic plan, introduced two months ago, motorists coming from Perambur, Vysarpadi, Sembium and Vepery on Basin Bridge Road cannot take a ‘right’ turn at the junction to reach Wall Tax Road and have to proceed straight where they can take a ‘U’ turn below the new Mint flyover to reach Wall Tax Road via the one-way, narrow Padavattamman Koil Street.
Similarly, motorists coming from Cochrane Basin Road can’t proceed straight to reach Wall Tax Road from the junction. They have to take ‘U’ turn below the Mint flyover to reach Wall Tax Road via Padavattamman Koil Street.
However, Wall Tax Road retains its old traffic system with motorists being allowed to take a right and left turn at the junction to reach Mint and Basin Bridge railway station respectively. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the MTC bus services use Wall Tax Road to reach Mint and other localities. Any change in the MTC bus routes will result in causing inconvenience to commuters.