Residents of 100 Feet Road in Velachery find the northern parts of the Chennai slipping out of their range. And as residents are having a shopping list of changes they want to see in the neighbourhoods, ready for candidates of political parties, those residing in neighbourhoods off 100 Feet Road in Velachery are seeking that north Chennai be “brought closer” to them.

Many summers ago, travelling to areas such as Royapuram in north Chennai did not take much of an effort as a raft of bus services were being operated to Broadway, Thiruvottiyur, Royapuram and surrounding areas from Sithalapakkam, Ottiyambakkam, East Tambaram, Kovilambakkam, Madipakkam and Madambakkam, through Velachery.

But today, the services are as good as non-existent, as only a handful of them are still on the road. Even these services are being operated only in the morning, and nowhere to be seen in the evening.

Route D51X, plying from Sithalapakkam, E51 from Ottiyambakkam, 51J from Madambakkam, and 51D from East Tambaram to Royapuram, is spotted only once in the morning at the Vijaya Nagar bus terminus, and in the evenings, these services do not ply.

Commuters from Velachery have to head to Little Mount to board buses to destinations such as Royapuram in north Chennai. To reach Thiruvottiyur, commuters have to disembark at the Chennai Central railway station bus stop or at the Royapuram terminus and board another bus.

I request the authorities at Metropolitan Transport Corporation to look into this issue and do the needful at the earliest to alleviate the problems faced by commuters from Velachery and the adjoining regions.

(B. Gangadharan, a resident of Sakthi Vijayalakshmi Nagar in Velachery, wrote this article for The Hindu Downtown under its Readers Write section).