சென்னையின் சாலைகளில் . . .

(On the roads of Chennai . . . )

Chennai faces more than its share of traffic congestion . . . this photo was taken at a gridlocked junction . . .

Most of the roads now have central medians . . . these medians have definitely helped in reducing the number of road accidents in the city . . .

Waiting for the green signal . . .

The renowned Anna University (அண்ணா பல்கலைக்கழகம்) is a very old engineering university that also acts as an affiliating university for other engineering and technological institutions across the state of Tamil Nadu now . . .

Chennai has a national park within the city limits . . . wild animals are found at the Guindy National Park . . .

Deer are said to have freely roamed across this stretch of road when the traffic was sparse a long time ago . . . if they step on this road now, the magnificient creatures would probably be killed by speeding vehicles . . .

Chennai is home to several automobile factories . . . all Hyundais are made in Chennai, as are all Mitsubishis, Fords and BMWs, Ashok Leyland buses and Royal Enfield motorcycles . . . while Renault and Nissan cars will be made here as well . . . (the Standard Motors factory closed down a long time ago)

The automobile industries require vendors of auto components . . . there is a big presence of automobile component manufacturers as well, like Lucas TVS . . .

Autorickshaws (autos in Chennai Tamil) can be found in every corner of the city . . .

The traffic police have begun enforcing the rule specifying the compulsory wearing of helmets . . . this has helped in bringing down the number of serious head injury cases in hospitals . . . but it looks like more men follow this rule when compared to women . . .

Waiting in line behind a black car to fill up the tank at the fuel pump . . . with the notorious international killer corporate oil mafia determined to rob Earthlings of our hard-earned money, we have to visit the fuel pump more often than before . . .

The buses of Chennai

மாநகரப்பேருந்து சென்னை (The Metropolitan Transport Corporation of Chennai- MTC) operates Chennai’s buses . . . they have introduced more comfortable buses like this one with a pneumatic suspension and ventilators on the roof . . .

. . . and this one with doors operated by the driver to prevent travelling on the foot-boards . . .

Destination Thailand in Chennai? The MTC rents out advertising space on the buses . . .

This one is a தொடர் பேருந்து (thodar perunthu) or a vestibule bus! The citizens of Chennai don’t like to cut down trees to pave the way for double-decker buses, so we have these long vestibule buses that can carry the same number of passengers as double-decker buses! . . .

This is Chennai’s inter-city bus terminus . . .

. . . intra-city buses pick up passengers from inter-city buses in a separate terminus for MTC buses within the main terminus . . .

Cars and motorcycles and scooters parked at the inter-city bus terminus . . .

The MTC buses are the lifeline of Chennai city . . . the buses are used non-stop during the day . . . this leads to older buses breaking down . . .

The MTC also operates a few late night services for the convenience of those who travel at unearthly hours . . .

The terminus is ISO 9001 certified . . . Chennai speaks தமிழ் (Tamil), one of two languages in India that are classified as national, official and classical . . .

All photographs were taken by me on the roads of Chennai. They are copylefted! You can use them, but providing an acknowledgement and a link to this blog would be considered as civilised behaviour!