Chennai: An ill-planned experiment by the Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) which closed three U-turns to regulate vehicular movement near Perungudi on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR), backfired on Wednesday, causing severe congestion for nearly three hours and forcing police to withdraw the changes within hours. The restrictions, announced on GCTP’s social media page only on Tuesday night for implementation from Wednesday, caught many regular commuters off guard.Commuters said vehicles crawled along several stretches during the morning peak hours, with a journey from Thoraipakkam to Perungudi taking nearly two hours against the usual 25 minutes.As part of the trial, police closed three U-turns. Vehicles from Mettukuppam towards Sholinganallur were prevented from taking the U-turn near Geetham restaurant and directed up to the Perungudi toll plaza. Similarly, vehicles from the 200 Feet Radial Road towards Sholinganallur could no longer turn near BSR Mall and had to proceed to the toll plaza.Vehicles travelling from Kandanchavadi towards SRP Tools junction were also barred from using the U-turn near World Trade Center.Paneerselvam, a regular commuter from Thoraipakkam said that shifting the U-turns farther away resulted in vehicles travelling additional distances and piling up at alternative turning points. Office-goers were among those caught in the congestion.“Such traffic experiments are generally better carried out during lean hours, when vehicle movement is relatively low. It is difficult to understand why the changes were introduced on a busy weekday,” said Vetrivel, a resident of Sholinganallur.With traffic continuing to build up, police restored the earlier arrangement by afternoon, following which congestion gradually eased.A senior GCTP officer said the trial was withdrawn after officials observed the traffic build-up. “We have restored the previous arrangement following the congestion. Any fresh changes will be considered only after studying traffic flow and other factors in detail,” the officer said.
