Widest & most happening road in Madurai
Tamil historians used to boast that Ancient Madurai under Pandyan kings had wide roads. They truly built a planned city with outer walls etc. But the roads are not that much wide. It pales in comparison to historic roads & roundanas in Mysore (ofcourse Mysore roads seems to be of recent origin while Madurai roads may be thousands of years old, not a real comparison there).
Now to an interesting question. Which one will be widest & most happening road in Madurai?
The wider roads in Madurai are at best four-laners, usually two lanes with a median at the centre. So don’t be disappointed.
The Alagarkovil Road at Goripalayam used to be an important & wide-looking stretch in 80s, but the 80 feet road from KK nagar to Kuruvikaaran Saalai was more wider & comfortable.
It showed signs of developing into a bustling shopping district, but it’s parallel road on Anna Nagar took over.
The Anna nagar main road doesn’t have much platform space, but is four-track. It now has the vibrance of a shopping area, but lack of parking space hinders it to realize its full potential.
All these roads were on the northern side of River Vaigai. On the south there used to be no wide roads to speak off. There is a small stretch between Teppakulam and Nirmala School which can look wide, but it isn’t a happening stretch.
Now, to boast a most happening road, the southern side takes over. The Bye-pass road, with service roads on either side, ample shoulders after wide canals & avenue trees made it a natural choice for shoppers. Sure enough, shops have flocked for this road and is fast becoming an elite shopping & happening place.
Naidu hall, World of Titan, Raymonds, Vimal, Megamart, Sony World, Panasonic Brand shop, Basics and local big shopping names such as Milan, Anandha & Anandha, Madura Shoes… bye-pass road surely overtook all other roads in the city.
The central part of the road needs to be widened. Work on this is moving on snail’s pace. Once the new NH 4-track north-south Golden Corridor bye-pass is completed (hoping for March 2008), much of the container lorry traffic will be reduced, leaving the current bye-pass road to develop into a full shopping area.
It might need to be renamed by then. Guess it will be named after Gandhi (MG Road, reminding bangaluru!) or Anna (we have many identical named areas as in chennai, but we dont have anna salai!).
So Madurai’s most happening & wide road is …. the Bye-pass road (sigh, strange name!)
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Well, relatively speaking these roads would have looked big in those days because there were less people and traffic. But now the conditions are different, which is why the once big roads look small now.
swargame enralum athu (madurai—goripalayam pola varuma)