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-   -   Traffic and life on the roads in Chennai (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/68789-traffic-life-roads-chennai-203.html)

It is possible to avoid most of ECR (and Thiruvanmiyur) by passing Kalakshetra and the back of the Thiruvanmiyur temple. Unfortunately, though, a great many people know this now, and it can get bad on the narrow roads. If you get to Palavakkam Beach, you can go through all the way to St Anthony's.

More updates:

- The Saidapet bound side is almost complete except for a small barricade section closer to the signal. The sidewalks are done as well. One word of caution: The dividers have moved around a bit from what they were during the construction, so please keep your eyes peeled in the 1/2 km leading to Nandanam signal.
- The Cenotaph Road-Mount Road junction that had broken sections is fixed as well.
- The resurfacing (as of this morning) is being done all the way till Buhari Hotel signal.

You can take a left at Perungudi V3 Hyundai service center and go through (Perungudi) Estate Main Road and get to the other side. no?

I couldn't help the person asking for a toll-free commute from Adyar to Thoraipakkam.

But here's a 100% legit toll-free way from Camp Road junction to OMR.
1) Drive from Camp Rd to Mappedu junction past Bharath university. Take left at Mappedu.
2) Go past Agaram Ten.
3) Turn left where you see Sithalapakkam lake and after 2-3 Km turn right into Sithalapakkam at a 'Y' shaped junction.
4) Go into and then out of Bollineni hillside.
5) Pass through TNSCB (slum clearance settlements) on the Nookampalayam link road.
6) Emerge out at OMR opposite to TCS semmenjeri. You can drive either way on OMR toll free up to the toll booths at Perungudi and Navalur.

On this route, there's no traffic and roads are not broken. But they are relatively narrow and riddled with speed bumps so you won't save travel time. But I take this route daily by daylight to avoid sickening traffic.

At night I am wary of the aggressive people from the TNSCB settlements. I had written on this very thread of a biker taking on a young Nexon driver for merely honking at him.

There's a similar toll-free route all the way from Camp road to Siruseri past Sithalapakkam. You have to go past Arasankazani and Thalambur.

This is the route, which I used to take from Pammal to Siruseri.

Pros :thumbs up:
No Signal after Rajakilpakkam.
No Toll
No traffic Jams

Cons :Frustrati:
The stretch near Thalambur and further towards Siruseri is pothole ridden
From Madambakkam till almost Sithalapakkam, has lot of turns and humps for every turn.
The road is been widened from the turn off before Kaleswari Oil Mill till Sithalapakkam.

https://goo.gl/maps/pXitKGfNQvC2


Had changed to Siruseri-Vandalur-ORR-Pammal though its more by 10 kms.

Now with the Metro inauguration till AG-DMS, anyone has any info on whether there are plans to make the GN Chetty road two-way again?

There are still patches of Metro work going on in Nandanam and Teynampet. The Nandanam->Teynampet side of Mount road is yet to be resurfaced, and Mount Road is yet to be a full-fledged 6-lane road.

Till this is over, I doubt anything is going to change at Venkatanarayana Road or GN Chetty Road.

Yes, still some way to go before it becomes a 6-lane. I was passing through the Teynampet (Pondy bazaar junction) to Nandanam today morning and discovered that they had blocked the road Teynampet->Nandanam lanes for resurfacing the roads. So, i started hoping that they would do something quickly :D

This is what a 15 min rain does to chennai traffic!

Met a lorry driver today at the fuel pump near Selaiyur who had a great sense of humor and he had everyone around laughing with his situational jokes.

He is a qualified civil engineer who became unemployed, gave up hunting for a job and is now driving an Eicher truck. "Got to keep the family and the household running", he told me with a smile, that he once used to live a proper middle class life. The truck earns him a livelihood, gives him 6.5 Kmpl when unladen and 5 Kmpl laden. Unruly people on the roads though give him endless aches in his feet and arms.

I didn't take a selfie or anything with him as I was unsure how he would take it. But it's good to have met someone like him and gained his perspective in life. He drives on our roads, is one of the many faceless men who keep our economy on the move and he's a genuinely funny person, despite how he gets treated by society on and off the road. I did shake his hands though.

:OT An Engineer!! agree: We are always funny!! Especially the core guys :D

Jokes apart, did you notice which company he was driving for? could help him out with some contracts in the future.

I think he drives his own truck...
I'll ask at the bunk when I fill up next time around. He seemed to know the bunk's employees.

I am seeing the first signs this week. The Nandanam elevator work is complete and they've started working on the divider work at the Nandanam signal to U-turn point the last 2-3 days.

Work is largely happening only at late nights, so expect complete road blocks if travelling midnight-5am in Teynampet-Nandanam stretch.
--
The barricade disease has caught up in the city :Frustrati, expect surprise barricades all over town if you are travelling late night.

I tried enquiring at the petrol bunk where I had met him. Turns out he was only passing by and I'd mistaken his great rapport with the bunk's employees to be a sign of them knowing each other very well. But thanks for the gesture! I'll PM you the next time I meet a similar character, if that's ok with you, i.e.

Crazy traffic jam today morning at Thuraipakkam signal (OMR and Thuraipakkam-Pallavaram radial road)...signal was off...traffic police manually controlling the traffic...looks like it was due to a march by school students (against drugs).

Also, the arrangement to prevent right turn on the Velachery-East Tambaram road under the flyover at Kamakshi hospital junction doesnt seem a good idea. Guess the bottleneck is now moved into the radial road!

OMR Toll rates hiking again. It's 27 Rs one-way effective from 1st July. One of the worthless toll gates in the city :-(