namma mejura

Seems all roads leads to WCTC (Word Classical Tamil Conference) Coimbatore. A temporary board put up by highways department at Palanganatham roundana towards bye-pass road says “Way to Semmozhi Maanaadu – Kovai“!

Since the 4-track road & ring road entirely bye-passes Madurai, this bye-pass road is now within city. A new name is due for this only genuine wide road in Madurai.

4-track roads have become the reality around Madurai since 2009. If you travel on road towards north (Salem), south (Kanyakumai) & north-east (Trichy) you can travel in relative comfort, fast & smooth. All these roads were 4-track & completed. Further the road towards south-east (Tuticorin) is also 4-track and fast nearing completion.

But all these improvements come with a price, that place regular travellers in a fix. If you have to commute about 30 kms on these 4-track daily on a car, you have to pay about Rs.75 per day for using the road. Adding to the rising fuel expenses, this adds a sizable Rs.2,000 burden per month.

If you visit nearby Melur (30kms) on Madurai – Trichy road in a car, you need to pay Rs.50 one way (or Rs.75 for two way – if returned same day). Car travel from Madurai to Chennai cost around Rs.235 one way on toll fee. About the same as a reserved second class sleeper ticket on train.

Toll charges seems to be costliest between Madurai and Trichy (120 kms) with Rs.95 one way (or Rs.145 for two way). Needless to say, it has put a positive effect of car owners who travel single. They either opt for other modes (Rs.40 is the fare on bus), or go for car pool whenever possible. NHAI can claim they are forcing car owners go green!

The rates were higher for heavy vehicles. Needless to say lorry owners are not taking it lightly. A return trip between Tuticorin and Bangalore is said to be costing Rs.3,500 on toll alone. They have announced indefinite strike from August 2, 2010. They are readily supported by private bus & van operators.

Hope some respite will be available from their protest.

Road medians in most narrow & busy streets were suddenly disappearing. After years of adding obstacles to make the public fall in line, the traffic police now seem to be trusting drivers to behave themselves. Are they trusting too much?

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!)

Twenty years back I used to lament about living in a slow city (nee, village) called Madurai.  But over the last decade, I’m glad that Madurai is growing slowly when compared to other cities in Tamilnadu.  With rapid expansion, even Tuticorin & Erode seems to be growing faster than Madurai.

It takes at least 50 minutes to commute on a four-wheeler to cross 10kms within city in Chennai during peak hours.  Worse in Bangalore.  Coimbatore is only marginally better.  Compared to this, Madurai is scoring highly even though it has narrow roads.

Seems a blessing in disguise!

Much to the relief of Maduraiites, the bridge from Periyar bus stand to Railway station west entry is opened. It’s wider than the old bridge and eases the traffic to a great extent.

The other half from Periyar bus stand to Ellis Nagar is still under construction. Once completed, it will be a 4 track bridge and relives congestion on western side.

As Chennai, Erode and other corporations go for stone walled 3 feet medians on arterial roads, Madurai too is starting to build such medians on Alagarkoil road (at Goripalayam).

These are nice looking barriers, but unlike other cities, sand started collecting at the edge of the road closer to stone wall.  As the foreign lady once observed, ‘Madurai roads disappearing into dirt on either side’.

This is part of the series of infrastructure projects under development in and around Madurai. Madurai have National Highways going out in 7 directions (towards Dindigul, Trichy, Rameswaram, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Shencottai and Kochi) of which atleast 4 routes were proposed to become 4-track roads.

1. North-South Golden Corridor: Supposed to be over by 2007. The stretch from Samayanallur – Virudhunagar had a target deadline of March 2008 according to boards put up along the road. It’s march 2008 now and seems it will take at least one full year to complete. The bye-pass around Tirumangalam can be opened in 3-4 months time.
2. Madurai-Trichy: Work progressing fast on the Madurai-Trichy route (NH47), it is expected to be ready by the end of 2008.

Besides, the ring-road which is essentially a 4-track road is proposed to make it a full-circle around Madurai. The remaining parts

1. Kappalur (south) to Samayanallur (north-west): is now being built under NH-7 Kashmir-Kanyakumari 4-track road
2. Samayanallur to Uthangudi (north-east): is being touted in newspapers but constructuion has not actually begun.

It’s not uncommon to see a dog lie crushed on arterial roads, particularly where high tonnage vehicles ply. When I see one while riding, my reaction would be to careful not to run over them and promptly forget it after crossing the point. If there is any road-side vendors nearby, they’ll arrange to drag the corpse out of the road (out of sight), otherwise it will lie there for hours.

When two German tourists to the city decided to care a dog with smashed hind legs in an accident and wailing for hours, it was indeed a sobering effect. The incident apparently happened in the busy East Masi Street, with numerous people passing through without noticing. (News item in Hindu)

The German girls who are clearly animal lovers, and have an interesting look on our way of life. They say, ‘Nowhere in the world, dogs and cattle move freely on the roads like here’. Was it a compliment? a defect? Should we be proud in this type of animal freedom?

The Goodshed street that is usually clogged with lorries off-loading sanitary & ceramic tiles has become a primary entrance to reach West Masi street from West Veli street.  It’s a welcome change which helps in relieving congestion.  To go with it, the usually quaint Sambandamoorthy street (opp. Ayyappan temple on west masi st.) is also made one-way in the opposite direction.

Another new one-way system has come up between South Masi street & South Avanimoola street, but the narrow roads with cycle traffic makes it look ineffective.