The Mada streets of Mylapore and the streets around Kapaleeswarar Temple are narrow and traffic congestion is always perennial. Adding to the problem is illegal parking.
The normal traffic flow gets disturbed due to the illegally parked vehicles especially during Margazhi season. The residents of Sannidhi street, East Mada, North and South Mada streets have been facing a lot of problems due to this.
“There is no proper place for the pedestrians to walk and especially on these days, where the number of visitors coming to the temple is high, there is no space for the temple-goers,” said Shankaran, a resident of Sannidhi Street.
“The number of vehicles have increased considerably over the past few decades. Even though the traffic police is there, congestion is always there. Also, the vendors are occupying half the road near the temple and it causes a lot of inconveniences,” he added.
A traffic police constable. said, “People are simply not bothered with the ‘no parking’ signs put up along the north and south Mada Streets. As it is a festive season, the streets will be crowded. So people tend to park their vehicles in unofficial parking zones.”
“We started imposing fines on these illegally parked vehicles. We are working on this issue and also trying our best to take account of the public opinions,” he added.
“Since Mylapore is a very old residential area, roads cannot be widened but at least the traffic can be controlled by making four-wheelers and three-wheelers not enter these narrow streets so that relief can be obtained from the trouble,” says Sivakumar, another resident.