Can a minor change in the median bring unmitigated joy to a whole neighbourhood? Ask Kotturpuram residents

Residents of Kotturpuram are heaving a thunderous sigh of relief watching a median opening at Gandhi Mandapam Road “behave” way differently than it had been for the past few months. To their unmitigated delight, it has developed an attitude of magnanimity, no longer grudging residents on wheels the right to pass through it without the least bit of hindrance and safely. This opening in front of Vellayan Street had been kept only partially open, half of it being closed with metal barricades. Motorists had to squeeze their way through that small opening.  And the fact that the traffic signals at this partially-open median opening had been allowed to take an indefinite break from work was not helping the cause of safety. Imagine motorists on either side making a scramble for that narrow gash in the median. There was just an orange light on the blink to indicate the presence of the median opening. 

Cut to now, the median opening lives up to its name. It is open. No qualifications anymore: not “partially” or at select times, but just open and functioning under the guidance of traffic signals finally switched on. On Gandhi Mandapam Road, barricaded openings having become ubiquitous, this one clearly strikes a note of positivity among residents.

Mohan Menon, a resident of Ranjit Road, notes that since last week, the median opening at Gandhi Mandapam is fully open and the traffic signals have been made operational again, providing residents with smoother passage from one side of Gandhi Madapam Road to the other. 

Kotturpuram residents hope this arrangement stays.

In its edition dated July 5, 2026, The Hindu Downtown had highlighted the ineffectiveness of partially open median openings at Gandhi Mandapam Road. A resident had weighed in with her observations about the inconvenience this was causing residents.

And in the following edition (dated July 12), it announced the fact that the median opening on Gandhi Mandapam Road opposite Vellayan Street was open and the traffic signals functioning.