Quite a task: An ambulance trying to enter Government Rajaji Hospital on Panagal Road in Madurai on Monday. | Photo Credit: R. Ashok more-in Thousands of vehicles use Panagal Road, an important arterial road in the city. Government Rajaji Hospital, which serves patients from the southern districts, and Madurai Medical College are situated on this road, which also connects to the Madurai Collectorate and big private hospitals. Hence, this road is busy from early morning to late night hours. Thankfully, unlike most of the roads in this old city, this road is broad and well-laid. But haphazard parking and encroachment by vendors have made the road narrow, particularly at the western end near Goripalayam and the eastern end near Anna bus stand. Mini buses, which have a small terminus behind the shopping complex opposite the GRH, are stationed on the bus stop to pick up passengers, leaving little space for TNSTC city buses bound for Anna Nagar, KK Nagar, Sivaganga Road and Mattuthavani Integrated Bus Stand. Droves of share autorickshaws which try to pick up passengers crowd the bus stop. So cars, two-wheelers and other vehicles either wait behind them, honking for way, or manoeuvre through the share autorickshaws, mini buses and the hapless pedestrians hurrying across from the hospital to catch city buses. There is a cacophony of blaring horns, irritated drivers directing abuse at the drivers of mini bus and share autorickshaws. This scenario gets worse during peak hours. All this pandemonium will never make the mini buses to budge from the spot. Very rarely does a traffic police is posted here to bring a semblance of order, though there will be many standing near Thevar statue, hardly 100 metres away. After surmounting all these problems, doctors and even ambulances from the Goripalyam side have still one more hurdle. They have to take a tricky right turn to get into the GRH complex as a long line of share autorickshaws going towards Albert Victor bridge block the way to grab ‘passengers’ coming out of the hospital. “An ambulance driver finds it difficult to enter GRH even during emergency. The woes of Panagal Road do not end here. The pavement along GRH has been encroached by vendors selling all kinds of things, forcing pedestrians, even the sick and old patients, to walk on the road. The share autoriockshaws and mini buses stop and pick up or drop passengers wherever they wish on Panagal Road, posing danger to other road users. A few years ago, a Commissioner of Police ensured that the hospital area remained a no-horn zone. After after his transfer, the noise resumed. A strict Corporation Commissioner, with the support of the then Collector, opened the defunct subway opposite the GRH for public use. But after the officer was transferred, the subway was locked again. Madurai direly needs such disciplinarians to bring some order.

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