Madras Coastal Round Table 162 Go Green Initiative

Friends,

Sq Leg of MCRT 162 has done a fantastic effort in Turning the City Greener through MCRT 162

Heres a Report by Chairman K J Santhosh and Sq Leg Mc Sriram on the same

The following project is an example of what a Round Table India GO

GREEN initiative can be like. The objective was to stop noise and air

pollution at the source, ensure smooth traffic flow, thereby improving

the quality of life of lakhs of people everyday for years and have a never ending recurring benefit once it is successful. Also, i hope it inspires Round tablers to take the initiative and work on their own ideas whenever possible, to achieve results without necessarily being part of a team or waiting for funding to get started. Infact, this project involved not even a rupee spent by MADRAS COASTAL ROUND TABLE 162 who have lent moral and logistical support whenever needed and the never ending environmental benefit is equal to lakhs of trees being planted.

Anna Nagar in Chennai is one of the largest, best planned and affluent

neighborhoods anywhere in India. It was planned in the 70′s. It has plenty of Housing, Shopping, Schools, Hospitals and expensive real estate.

However, along with the rising population and traffic, the traffic police seemed clueless on how to control or regulate the traffic flow. Every time an intersection got busy the first reaction from the Police would be to depute officers to man the junction and then install a badly programmed traffic light and move to the next junction. This led to needless waiting at intersections, signal violations, massive pollution and frayed tempers all around apart from the long commute times for relatively short distances.

The basic infrastructure of the roads  is excellent and the roads in Anna Nagar are designed based on matrix structure similar to roads in developed countries in the western world; most of the roads are broad

and laid parallel and perpendicular to each other. There is even a national highway that passes through the area. Given all this, I decided that there had to be a better way and set about designing a traffic system to do away with as many of the 12 traffic lights as possible and ensure a quicker and hassle free journey through the main roads and streets of Anna Nagar.

Initially, I tackled the National Highway area around which about 35000 school students reside besides the lakhs of office goers and interstate traffic. A traffic flow plan that eliminated 4 major traffic lights and reduced wait time of commuters from 20-30 minutes to just 2-3 minutes was put up to the authorities. They liked it so much that they did a two day trial of the system and found it would work. I then proposed a comprehensive system for the rest of Anna Nagar, which would eliminate the need for the remaining 8 traffic lights, and they liked that too. Even though it was a massive change the Traffic Police decided to implement the whole scheme covering a vast area and affecting a massive number of commuters in one go on the 15th of December 2011.

I prepared the press note and the route map and it was published in all the major English and Local dailies in Chennai on the 13th of December. As expected, there was pandemonium everywhere for the first couple of days after it was implemented but after a week everyone got used to the system and now they just zip through the points where they spent so many frustrating  hours, burnt so much fuel and honked unnecessarily .It is almost amazing to see how well the system is working. The commutes have become much surprisingly shorter and even pleasurable for many who cant seem to believe just how quickly they reach their destination now.

I take great pleasure in actually walking up to a few junctions that were previously bursting with congestion to watch how traffic passes by quickly, silently and without honking. The hitherto hassled junior traffic cops have almost no work to do now and when i casually tell them that I designed the entire system they smile so broadly that i never knew that cops could actually smile so much. Most of them invariably are so thankful that they actually want to drag me off to the nearest coffee vendor to buy me a coffee and express their gratitude.

As they say the “proof of the pudding is in the eating” and  this is proof enough that it is possible that one tabler with  an idea that can benefit the community at large  can make a positive change to the system without spending significant amounts of money.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

MC SRIRAM

162sriram@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Reported By

Hamir Sampat

MKRT 181

RTI