Chennai Port lets go parking lot, leaves expressway open

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on July 17, 2010:

CHENNAI: The sudden decision of Chennai Port Trust to return a 11-acre plot leased to them by Thiruvotriyur Municipality for container trailer parking is likely to cause traffic snarls on the busy Ennore Expressway.

More than 3,000 tipper lorries and about 4,000 container trailers use the stretch everyday round the clock. With vehicles now having to wait for entry to the port, parked on the road, it will turn the clock back to preJuly 2007, when the idea of the parking yard was mooted by Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin to reduce traffic congestion.

The Port's action will upset not only operations of the Chennai Container Terminal Limited, which was using the yard as its depot, but also revenue flow of Thiruvotriyur Municipality which stands to lose rent of Rs 11 lakh a month.

Though the lease was extended for 18 years recently, the port suddenly returned the yard without even issuing the stipulated threemonth notice, Kalaiselvan, commissioner of the civic body, told Express.

Kotteswaran, a social activist from Thiruvotriyur, said: "We are not going to allow Chennai Port Trust to act on its own. Residents are ready to fight it out."

Port Trust chairman Capt Subhash Kumar told Express: "We have returned the yard as no one evinced interest in maintaining it when we called for tenders." The yard was not of much use as trailers just entered there to collect passes and moved toward the port gates, he said.