Residents of Gowl Bazaar, Pozhichalur, Anakaputhur, Pammal and civilian families in Cantonment Pallavaram are unhappy with the administrators of Pallavaram Army Camp for severing a crucial link road connecting their areas with Grand Southern Trunk Road.
They claimed that the move had restricted the movement of cars and Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses.
While sources said the digging up of the road and subsequent placing of a gate was to keep a check on polluters, residents alleged that an age-old access route was being blocked for no reason.
“Veteran Lines has been the only link connecting Grand Southern Trunk Road and our localities for decades. Pozhichalur, Pammal and Gowl Bazaar are ancient hamlets. Preventing the movement of cars and MTC buses is just not fair,” pointed out K. Ganesh, a third-generation resident of Gowl Bazaar. Motorists travelling by cars as well as the few MTC buses on route No. 52 G (Gowl Bazaar to Broadway and Pallavaram via Pozhichalur) are now forced to take a circuitous route.
“The buses and cars now have to travel on the already narrow and congested Pammal Main Road to reach Pozhichalur and Gowl Bazaar. Digging up the road was uncalled for,” said R. Kannan, another resident.
Officers at Pallavaram Army Camp could not be reached for comment, but soldiers living in the military quarters around the barricaded site said the initiative was to prevent miscreants from dumping poultry waste.
Staff at St. Thomas Mount-cum-Pallavaram Cantonment Board too said the poultry waste was a huge menace as it was located just outside the compound wall on the northern end of the principal runway of the airport.
Even hazardous waste was being dumped at the spot and the only way to prevent such activity was to shut down the road to light commercial vehicles carrying this waste. However, they would consider letting city bus services to travel on the restricted stretch, they added.
