Locals are irked by traffic woes
Residents want traffic on Ooty-Mysore NH streamlined
By : b. ravichandran
Update: 2014-09-22 02:27 GMT
Ooty: While locals who regularly commute between Gudalur and the Ooty sector of the Ooty-Mysore national highway are irked by the frequent traffic snarls near the Thalaikundah sector of the road, the residents of the Sholur village area want action from the district administration to regulate traffic on this busy NH as it plays havoc with the travel plans of many villagers residing in the nearby areas.
If one happens to see the haphazard parking and frequent traffic jams near Thalaikundah junction on the Ooty-Mysore NH, it would indicate that the traffic managers and foresters fail to pay attention to maintain traffic flow.
Traffic congestion in this section not only adds to the woes of thousands of travellers and tourists who commute between Ooty and Mysore, Ooty and Gudalur and Ooty and the nearby Pykara lake, but turns miserable also for quite a few villages, including Sholur and Sandinallah, situated around this NH.
Mr Ramesh Belli, secretary of the Nilgiris Farmers’ Association, hailing from Sholur village, said most of the tourists and travel operators parked their vehicles on the roadside a few yards from Thalaikundah junction to sneak into the jungles. Though the jungles along the Ooty-Mysore NH is a reserve forest, there is free flow of tourists inside the jungles.
This apart, the police do not show any interest in regulating traffic there, which often leads to congestion, thus virtually blocking the possibility for residents around the villages to commute easily.
“Sometimes, patients are forced to wait either in ambulances or other vehicles for the traffic to clear. These traffic woes become worse during weekends and on holidays when the flow of traffic is generally high in the hills,” he said, and added that the district administration should intervene to instruct the foresters and police to take steps to regulate traffic on the road.