Jaywalking a menace on OMR, motorists say

Motorists on Rajiv Gandhi Salai are complaining about jaywalking on various stretches, including Thoraipakkam, Sholinganallur, and Navalur especially at night, making driving in the dark more difficult.

G. Gurumurthy of Thoraipakkam said, “At Kottivakkam, if one is not careful, hit and run cases could almost become the norm at night. The lighting was improved a few days ago, but it is not effective.”  

The lighting on the road has not improved despite the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company’s promise of providing lights in sections that have been handed over to them by the Chennai Metro Rail, pointed out Harsha Koda, Co-founder, Federation of OMR Residents Welfare Associations. “The height of the median in many places is not as tall as it should be. Since there are no proper zebra crossings and foot overbridges at necessary spots, the public is forced to clamber up the medians and jump over.” 

Lamp posts have not yet been installed along the road and lights sitting atop the CMRL structures are inadequate to light up the road. Sridevi Kothandapani of Thazhambur said that the blue-grey steel shutters can be moved, and when people want to cross the road, they move it and create gaps in the shutters. Recently, when I was trying to cross the road at night and was holding on to one shutter, it moved and I fell on the road. Luckily for me, there was no vehicle on the road at that time,” she said.