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THIS JAM TOO IS EASY TO SPREAD: Traffic snarls are the order of the day on the city roads on rainy days.

        Every time the sky opens up over the city, the traffic below (on the streets) closes, so to say. So much so, traffic jams have become 'ardent followers' of downpour. Adding to the woes is the civic construction works that mandates that roads have to be dug up no matter what.

        In the last two days, anybody who has had the mortification to be on any of the city's arterial roads and vital links, the only word coming out of his or her mouth would be 'hell'. Chennai roads have simply been clogged with vehicles, vehicles and vehicles (with frazzled drivers and riders on them), thanks to the lack of maintenance in rain water drainage system and construction of grade separators (flyovers for us) on arterial roads.

        The scene near Kathipara junction, a notorious bottleneck , this morning was symptomatic of the problem.

        A ride on a mortorbike from St Thomas Mount till guindy bridge took almost half-an-hour. Vehicles had to move at a speed which in comparison would have made tortoises seem Schumacher's on double duty.

        Prasad, a resident of Porur, says, 'everyday I face untold hardship in crossing the Kathipara junction to reach my office at Nandanam. It may be true that traffic may get better after the construction of the flyover. But, the authorities should have to find alternate ways to construct flyover without affecting the public, especially on rainy days'.

        Irked at the pace of work on the grade separators in Kathipara junction, Jagadeesh, an entrepreneur running a logistics firm says, 'the work was scheduled to have been completed by April itself. But as the half finished structure shows, it has many more miles to go. The net result is our sufferings don't look like ending.'

        The situation near Nandanam, Adyar Lattice Bridge Road, Anna Nagar-Tirumangalam stretch, the Vadpalani junction was no better today.