The Hindu Business Line : Traffic management in Chennai a source of worry

Planning for the future: (From left) Mr T.V. Somanathan, Managing Director, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd; Ms Kanimozhi, MP; Mr S. Ramasundaram, Chairman and Managing Director, TIDCO; and Mr Dinesh Kumar, Director, Airports Authority of India, Chennai; at ‘Chennai Version 3.0’, organised by CII in Chennai on Friday. —

Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 22 Traffic management and undisciplined driving in Chennai was among the main worries plaguing officials and industry experts at Chennai Version 3.0, a one-day conference on the future direction of growth for the city.

At the conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry – Chennai Zone, Mr T.V. Somanathan, Managing Director, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd, said that a three-pronged approach through traffic management and regulation, improved road infrastructure and encouraging commuters to shift to public transport from private would help in long-term planning.

“If the travel time in 2028 should be no worse than what it is today, we can be happy,” he said. Roads are not going to get any wider, traffic management would have to start from the basics of enforcing discipline, more one-way streets, increasing public transport by providing quality and quantity in public transport infrastructure.

Road infrastructure would have to come up in some areas such as the 62-km outer ring road and elevated expressways.

Traffic affects the basic quality of life – industry representatives including Dr Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group, and others from information technology and telecommunications industry all expressed concern on the quality of traffic.

Mr R. Sellamuthu, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, said that the State Government has doubled the funding outlay for improving the transportation infrastructure to Rs 50,000 crore to be spent over the next 10 years. This would involve setting up a metro rail, elevated expressways and inner and outer ring roads for the city.

Mr G.R.K. Reddy, Chairman, CII Chennai Zone, said that the developed urban area had to be spread over 6,000 sq km for a well planned city. At about 181 sq km, the Chennai Corporation area had a population density of about 22,000 a sq km. Over 2.1 million private vehicles belonging to just 4 per cent of the population hogged the roads. Suburban areas and satellite cities needed to be developed in a planned way for growth.

Mr Manikam Ramaswami, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu, said that over 40 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s GDP was generated from Chennai. But the infrastructure was stretched to capacity. The city needs to grow geographically and the rules and regulations amended appropriately for planned growth of the suburbs. Tamil Nadu needs a uniform policy for promoting public private partnership in infrastructure projects including transportations solutions.

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