Deccan Chronicle 16.02.2010

Koyambedu no less messy than Broadway

Feb. 15: The government had some seven years ago shifted the mofussil bus stand and also the wholesale vegetable/fruit market from Broadway, next to the Madras high court, to Koyambedu, which was then spacious and on the southwest outskirts of the city. But now, Koyambedu has turned out to be more crowded and messy than what Broadway used to be during the worst of human floods at festival times — overcrowded bus terminus, haphazardly parked autos, taxis and omnibuses, corrupt and indifferent traffic cops, not to mention the garbage dumps from the wholesale vegetable/fruit market next door.

“The government has done almost nothing to improve the infrastructure in the area, such as the roads and parking spaces,” says Ms Gayathri Ravikumar, a resident of Virugambakkam, now caught in the whirlpool of the Koyambedu mess.

The worst part is that the planners need not ponder over blueprints for decongesting Koyambedu for the next 20 years, contends an official at the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. “After the Metro Rail was chalked out, we have stopped all planning for further activities in Koyambedu, as the project took up nearly 80 acres in the area. This is, however, a win-win situation for us, as not only will traffic congestion be reduced to a great extent, commercial activity will also be controlled,” the official explained. Once the Outer Ring Road is inaugurated, the heavy vehicles can skip Koyambedu, he added.

The only respite is that the development body is now working on an exclusive bus terminus for omnibuses. “We have earmarked about 4-5 acres of land abutting Nesapakkam road to build a terminus for omnibuses, which will also serve as parking space for those buses that are mostly idle during the day at the mofussil bus terminus,” he said. The floor above the terminus will have a shopping complex, and a consultant has been identified to set up the public-private partnership for the project, the official said. “An alternative site is also being hunted for the foodgrain market that was displaced because of the Metro Rail,” the official added.

Of course, all this would come with a lot of pain during the process as people of the area are already groaning about the trouble they would be put to while all these developments take place.