Chennai Traffic Management

[prakstar]

The MRTS from Park town till Tiruvanmiyur is built long the buckinham canal.Cooum and Adyar like you mentioned in your aerial map does serve important points in the city. MK has just promised a 2nd airport, similarly if he can even consider this plan. The desilting and cleaning part is the tough part.The stoppings can be built on the banks of the river. The issue would be the width and height under road bridges. Since the waterways are straight we can opt for long slender ferries. If they can achieve this successfully probably by 2009/10 we can get this up and running. High hopes i Guess!!!!!!!

[Babji]

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/26/s...2601790400.htm
Traffic planning authorities awaiting report on highway patrol

CHENNAI: Traffic planning authorities are awaiting a study report on the highway patrol system in the State in a bid to improve its efficiency. The work has been entrusted with an independent agency and the report is expected soon, a senior police officer said.

The decision to take up the study comes at a time when road accidents are on the rise in the State. From 51,025 accidents in 2003, it went up to 55,145 in 2006. Last year, 11,009 persons died in road accidents. The magnitude of the problem lives can be gauged from the number of accidents on national highways in the State in the last two months. While in March there were 1,199 accidents, which claimed 259 lives, in April there were 1,285 accidents in which 271 persons died. With nearly a third of the accidents occurring on national highways and 160 highway patrol teams linked to Emergency Accident Relief Centres on the job, it was decided to have a study of the teams, Additional Director-General of Police, State Traffic Planning Cell, K.R. Shyamsundar, told The Hindu .

Merger : Highway patrols were sanctioned in May 1994 to prevent crime on national highways, assist victims of road accidents and regulate traffic. Later, the Government merged the patrol with Traffic...

Highway patrol has deterred criminals. The teams assisted a total of 1,556 injured persons in April, including 391 during the golden hour as compared to 1,423 in March, which included 420 persons during the first hour of the accident.

[gvijayan]

New traffic arrangement at Tiruvanmiyur

CHENNAI: A new traffic arrangement will come into force at the Tiruvanmiyur junction in the city on June 30.

It is being introduced in view of the growth in traffic on Lattice Bridge Road (Kalki Krishnamoorthy Salai) and Tiruvalluvar Salai.

Vehicles coming from the Adyar police station side will not be allowed to take a right turn at the junction.

Turn

An official release on Friday said all vehicles coming on Lattice Bridge Road from the Adyar police station side, and intending to turn right to West Avenue towards Old Mahabalipuram Road, would necessarily have to take the old bridge.

For going to Tidel Park, such vehicles should take the bridge and take a U turn at SRP Tools (junction).

Right turn to Tiruvalluvar Salai (East Coast Road), towards Tiruvanmiyur bus depot, from L.B. Road would be prohibited.

Vehicles coming on L.B. Road from Tiruvanmiyur Old Bridge Road, and intending to turn right turn to ECR, would have to take West Avenue and take a U turn at Tiruvanmiyur new bridge.

Arrangement based on study

The arrangement is based on the recommendations of a study on the volume of traffic on L.B Road and Tiruvalluvar Salai.

The new arrangements will be implemented on an experimental basis for about 30 days.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/23/stor...2350940100.htm

[Kingmaker]

continuing the discussion on waterways.. i found an excellent article on our waterways and their legacy.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/05/20/...2050150400.htm

[prakstar]

Originally Posted by Renault

continuing the discussion on waterways.. i found an excellent article on our waterways and their legacy.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/05/20/...2050150400.htm

Yeah, we have wasted a natural resource which could have easily eazed out our transport conjestion. Hope some one wakes up and revive this.

[goodman]

Originally Posted by prakstar

Yeah, we have wasted a natural resource which could have easily eazed out our transport conjestion. Hope some one wakes up and revive this.

Actually the present govt. has (read as had) a proposal to clean the waterways, but this is another project that is only on paper. It is very sad that our govt. is not taking any steps even though when the shipping and transport ministry is with us. Political will is a big activation barrier to surpass in India.
If this project is implemented it will solve some public and freight tranportation problems, reduce congestion on roads and trains, reduce mosquitos and flies and various diseases and mainly help drainage of rain water. main thing is to rehabilitate the slums along these waterways.

[cure]

Chennai: Tracking the reckless state-owned Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses will not be a tall task in future. The MTC management has decided to introduce global positioning system (GPS) in its buses, starting from August 15.

To start with, GPS will be introduced in two select routes - 21 G, that connects High Court and Tambaram, and No. 70 that goes from Tambaram to Avadi. An MTC team will monitor the movement of about 50 buses that ply along these routes from a control room at its headquarters at Pallavan House, said a senior official.

To provide real time information about the position of these buses to the commuters, electronic boards would be installed at 60 bus stops along these routes. “... Passengers can plan their trips based on the availability of buses,'' said the official.


The system would also help the crew communicate with their depot in case of any emergency.

The plan is the outcome of a research on “call bus” conducted in Madras IIT. R Sivanandan of IIT’s Transportation Engineering Division of Department of Civil Engineering, who was part of the research team, said that in due course information like seat availability in such buses could also be provided to waiting passengers.

Once the public transport goes hi-tech, it would discourage general public to use private vehicles, he noted.

http://inwww.rediff.com/newshound/ch.html

[Zailsingh]

Originally Posted by cure

Once the public transport goes hi-tech, it would discourage general public to use private vehicles, he noted.

http://inwww.rediff.com/newshound/ch.html

That is the real punch line. who says hi-tech cannot solve problems.

[vr_vicky]

Is there any plans from govt to decongest the traffice in Porur junction.? One has to wait for 10 mins there in peak hours.
The vadapalani Arcot road is going to be a big mess (already a mess) once all the apartments and the malls finished construction in that road.

[futurebiz1]

Originally Posted by vr_vicky

Is there any plans from govt to decongest the traffice in Porur junction.? One has to wait for 10 mins there in peak hours.
The vadapalani Arcot road is going to be a big mess (already a mess) once all the apartments and the malls finished construction in that road.

I don't think there is any proposal for a flyover there.Even i have seen the mess at porur junction in the evening.The situation is particularly bad for vehicles coming from ponamallee towards the junction. As with many other junctions, I feel that better mangement of busstops and auto rickshaws would go a long way in easing traffic bottlenecks.I serioulsy doubt the efficacy of flyovers built by our authorities.Most of them seem to be built for ornamental purposes.Urban expressways are the only long term solution.We all know that but who listens

[Cymen]

Originally Posted by Renault

Actually its a great idea. I myself thought about it many times. Just look at this map. Most of the major places are reachable through the Adyar and Cooum waterways. Buckingham canal is not clearly seen in the map though. But it could also serve as a RTS, parallel to the OMR.

image

Moreover, it would also improve tourism and services to some extent. But unfortunately it is not going to happen.

Water transport is to slow compated with other forms of transport. The rivers in Chennai don't seem suited for fast boats either, you need straight canals.
We only have one succesfull project here in Amsterdam, but it is more expensive then normal community / public transport and only for the few who happened live in place A and have to be in place B were to boat goes. (0 stops)

As for tourists, the rivers are the most stinky part of the city. They need to fix that first. It's now a souer and trash belt. They should remove all the homes up to 25-100 meters from the river and make it a green area with limited acces.

[Sridhar]

Even after cleaning up the rivers and waterways and diverting untreated sewage away from them (the project is currently underway), these are still not suitable for navigation mainly because they are only seasonal rivers. They do not have flows throughout the year. The reason they stink is that the only water in them for most of the year is water from untreated sewage and industrial effluents that flow into them. In the past, they used to carry flows from lakes, marshes and tanks to the sea. Now those water bodies have mostly disappeared. So unless some way is found to have enough water flows in these rivers, they cannot be used for navigation on a year-round basis.

[Cymen]

Originally Posted by Sridhar

Even after cleaning up the rivers and waterways and diverting untreated sewage away from them (the project is currently underway), these are still not suitable for navigation mainly because they are only seasonal rivers. They do not have flows throughout the year. The reason they stink is that the only water in them for most of the year is water from untreated sewage and industrial effluents that flow into them. In the past, they used to carry flows from lakes, marshes and tanks to the sea. Now those water bodies have mostly disappeared. So unless some way is found to have enough water flows in these rivers, they cannot be used for navigation on a year-round basis.

I noticed that, the river wasn't streaming at all. I also saw an irrigation project?
They need to stop irrigation during the dry season's from the river then, but is near impossible because food production is also very important. Here in Holland all still standing water is being pomped to keep moving / circulating.

The ideal solution would be a canal to the mountains, other provinces like Kerala seem to have enough water. How many water do lakes like Chambarakkam contain?

[gvijayan]

Plans to shift the Mofussil Bus Stand

The government is planning to establish mofussil Bus Terminuses at Poonamallee, Tambaram and Thiruvanmiyur in order to reduce the traffic congestion between Kathipara Junction and Koyambedu.

Additional Police Commisioner (Traffic) Mr. Sunil Kumar came up with this suggestion in a meeting held by CMDA.

The CMDA Chairman and Minister Mr. Parithi Ilamvazhuthi has principally agreed with Sunil's sayings and has informed that the government will take necessary steps regarding this issue.

http://www.maalaimalar.com/asp/news/...p?artid=221901

[gvijayan]

Originally Posted by gvijayan

Plans to shift the Mofussil Bus Stand

The government is planning to establish mofussil Bus Terminuses at Poonamallee, Tambaram and Thiruvanmiyur in order to reduce the traffic congestion between Kathipara Junction and Koyambedu.

Additional Police Commisioner (Traffic) Mr. Sunil Kumar came up with this suggestion in a meeting held by CMDA.

The CMDA Chairman and Minister Mr. Parithi Ilamvazhuthi has principally agreed with Sunil's sayings and has informed that the government will take necessary steps regarding this issue.

http://www.maalaimalar.com/asp/news/...p?artid=221901

More on this....

This issue was discussed during the blue print discussion of CMDA's 2nd Master plan.

Mr. Sunil Kumar has suggested terminating the buses coming via GST Road at Tambaram, via ECR at Thiruvanmiyur and via Bangalore Highway at Poonamallee.

If all the mofussil buses are allowed to Koyambedu, the situation will get worsen in the coming years, and hence establishing bus terminuses in the suburbs become important.

It was mentioned in the first master plan that a container terminal will be established in the outskirts, but it has not materialized yet.

Tamil version of it: http://www.maalaimalar.com/asp/news/...p?artid=221902

[futurebiz1]

Originally Posted by gvijayan

More on this....

This issue was discussed during the blue print discussion of CMDA's 2nd Master plan.

Mr. Sunil Kumar has suggested terminating the buses coming via GST Road at Tambaram, via ECR at Thiruvanmiyur and via Bangalore Highway at Poonamallee.

If all the mofussil buses are allowed to Koyambedu, the situation will get worsen in the coming years, and hence establishing bus terminuses in the suburbs become important.

It was mentioned in the first master plan that a container terminal will be established in the outskirts, but it has not materialized yet.

Tamil version of it: http://www.maalaimalar.com/asp/news/...p?artid=221902

I had suggested in one of my posts that buses from/to southern towns like Madurai,Trichy etc should be diverted thru the bypass.Moreover, these buses constitute the maximum number of Moffusil buses.I don't think that all buses would be terminated at the suburbs..Then what happens to Koyambedu facility?? I still think that Koyambedu should continue to be the bus stand but buses should use the Chennai bypass and not the GST road and 100 ft road.

[prakstar]

The plans to shift bus terminals to peripheral areas is good. Koyambedu was considered peripheral 15 years back, now its an part of the city. Thiruvanmiyur was once considered the corner of earth by us, now it is part of the Adyar-Besant Nagar-tiruvanmiyur cluster. Even places like poonamalle and tambaram will become dense in the next few years.Hence moving the terminals to these places would work out for maximum 10 years. After that we have to keep moving it it guess. Hence wont you think it would be better to have the terminals at the periphery of the metropolitan area (CMA) rather than corporation limits and simultaneously work on connectivity with both road and rail to various parts of Chennai. Our babus need to differentiate between wants and needs. Right now rapid rail network is essential. From the MRTS Example we see that most of the phase 2 railway stations are under utilized. It is a commuter rail, what is the point in trying to build such exagerated stations? instead they could have gone for a simple station design and get done with it. A local train station needs ticket counter, shelter at platforms, lifts, escalators and stairs, water dispensers and maybe a book/snack shop on the platforms. what is the point in building such huge structures. Right now the station looks like booth Bungalows - some stations are scary cos there is nothing, long empty areas thats all.

Our beurocrats should think ahead - We need a suburban rail network that serves people from all parts of the city. It need not be fancy with all stations resembling Newyork Penn station or South Boston station. It has to be functional - with good connectivity, decent speed. The proposed rail corridors are not sufficient - it is based on city population & demographics of today - we need to plan it for city's population for the next 20 years. We dont have rail connecting for example places like -besant nagaradyar-mylapore-royapettah with nungambakkam-vadapalani-annanagar
Since the city is growing in the southern and western side we need more east-west corridors. Purists may not agree with me here but we need something fast and effective. I was infact supporting the monorail scheme cos it was tryin to cover more areas than the proposed metro. Even if the monorail runs at 30-35 kmph we can still cover koyambedu - airport (12kms) within 20 minutes - tambaram - koyambedu in less than an hour which is excellent. We need a mix of mono-metro and BRT. Mono and BRT can serve as feeder services to metro while taking care of smaller routes by themselves and metro can serve the high-dense areas. In this way the roads will also get deconjested due to availability of multi-mode transport.

But i am sorry for being a pessimist in this - they would not allow such things to happen.

[yogivel]

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/01/stor...0160110300.htm

Perambur flyover work to resume

Staff Reporter

Anna University submits new design for the project

Chennai: Work on the Perambur flyover will soon resume as Anna University has submitted a new design for the project, Mayor M. Subramanian said here on Friday.

The flyover project, delayed for seven years, was revived by Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin but the work came to a standstill after it was found that there was no hard rock for support even below 100 feet. Anna University was consulted for a new project design.

The National Buildings Construction Corporation, which bagged the contract for the Perambur flyover, will execute the work through a sub-contract, the Mayor told reporters after the Chennai Corporation Council meeting.

The Council passed 74 resolutions. One of the resolutions was to extend the pilot project to lay underground ducts for optical fibre cables to major roads in the city.

At present, work has started on Nungambakkam High Road and Anna Nagar Second Avenue Road.

Proposal welcomed

Councillors also welcomed the proposal to provide fruit bread from November onwards for Corporation school (classes 10 and 12) students who attend special classes in preparation for their board exams.

Previously, the fruit bread was given from January to March.

The Corporation would spend about Rs. 50 lakh on the programme this year.

Foot overbridges

The Mayor also said tenders had been called to construct foot overbridges with escalators. Three such bridges would come up on Anna Salai (near Pangal Building; near Todd Hunter Nagar and near SIET College).

The Corporation will construct more such bridges if the public found them useful.

[Tron]

Originally Posted by gvijayan

Plans to shift the Mofussil Bus Stand

The government is planning to establish mofussil Bus Terminuses at Poonamallee, Tambaram and Thiruvanmiyur in order to reduce the traffic congestion between Kathipara Junction and Koyambedu.

Additional Police Commisioner (Traffic) Mr. Sunil Kumar came up with this suggestion in a meeting held by CMDA.

The CMDA Chairman and Minister Mr. Parithi Ilamvazhuthi has principally agreed with Sunil's sayings and has informed that the government will take necessary steps regarding this issue.

http://www.maalaimalar.com/asp/news/...p?artid=221901

That's a stupid idea. This will cause so much inconvenience to the people to have 3 mofussil bus stations. The best thing to do is to have a single terminal - probably a multi-level terminal. The buses need to be routed through the bypass that goes near Koyambedu. Wonder what a passenger will do if he needs to go from Mahabalipuram to Tirupati - take one bus to Tiruvanmiyur - take a city bus to Poonamallee - take another bus to Tirupati. Wow, the bureaucrats have just pretended to solve one existing problem while introducing several new problems.

I think the bureaucrats who make these policies do not ride buses to remote towns that they just play around with ideas that are very unfriendly to passengers. Think about it - even if the buses are terminated at some point outside the city, that will increase the traffic of buses, autos or taxis that these people need to take to get to their final destination. This does not solve the problem, it just shifts the load from one mode of transport to another. Newsflash: The metro trains do not run to everyone's house.

[Fusionist]

Originally Posted by Tron

That's a stupid idea. This will cause so much inconvenience to the people to have 3 mofussil bus stations. The best thing to do is to have a single terminal - probably a multi-level terminal. The buses need to be routed through the bypass that goes near Koyambedu. Wonder what a passenger will do if he needs to go from Mahabalipuram to Tirupati - take one bus to Tiruvanmiyur - take a city bus to Poonamallee - take another bus to Tirupati. Wow, the bureaucrats have just pretended to solve one existing problem while introducing several new problems.

I think the bureaucrats who make these policies do not ride buses to remote towns that they just play around with ideas that are very unfriendly to passengers. Think about it - even if the buses are terminated at some point outside the city, that will increase the traffic of buses, autos or taxis that these people need to take to get to their final destination. This does not solve the problem, it just shifts the load from one mode of transport to another. Newsflash: The metro trains do not run to everyone's house.

I tend to agree with Tron. Splitting the Bus Terminal is not passenger friendly. Also it would increase intra-terminal traffic as passengers might have to travel extra miles to transit. While the world is moving towards integrated transport connectvity, splitting terminals goes agains't the trend. If ever there is an absolute need to split, I would suggest a Bus Terminal in Guindy ( for south bound buses ) and keep the Koyambedu terminal for west/north bound buses. Boththese terminals will be well connected by the proposed metro along the IRR.

To ease congestion further, I think the secondary roads, road density & quality need to be increased in Chennai. As one long lost-forumer once mentioned, thre seem to be lesser secondary roads in Chennai compared to the UK or the US. Also the standard of these less popular roads are appauling making them less suited for buses.

For example here is a description of road classification :

(a)*Strategic roads
Strategic roads are defined as the main signed traffic routes on which longer-distance through traffic should travel.

(b)*Secondary roads
Secondary roads are roads which provide links between the Strategic roads and which distribute traffic within the City and to neighbouring boroughs. They are in general either signed local routes or bus routes or routes which carry large volumes of traffic.

(c)*Local roads
The City's remaining roads fall into this category. Some of these roads are more important, where their function is essentially to distribute local traffic. Others are less important, being used to gain access to residential and local centres. Local roads are also used by cyclists on longer journeys. As local area studies are conducted, the function of each road will be examined and local traffic will be encouraged to use those roads which are most appropriate to the type of journey being made within the area.

http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/udp/a...ap7/trans1.cfm

Right now there is a lot of emphasis on stratergic roads in Chennai ( ie. IRR,PHR,Bypass etc ) and the bulk traffic through these routes have to be spread out. For example there is hardly any noticable connection to the east from IRR near Koyambedu. Traveling from north if you miss the Koyambedu junction, the next major entry into the city would be near Vadapalai which is miles away.