As all the roads led to Marina beach front for the
IAF’s stunning Air Show to mark its 92nd anniversary, traffic snarls were
witnessed in several areas of the city on Sunday.
The Chennai Metro trains and the Elevated MRTS trains on the
Velacherry-Chennai Beach sector, which has stations in close
proximity to Marina, were packed to capacity.
Heavy crowds, including students, women and children, were seen in Railway
stations where thousands of them returned home disappointed as they could
not board the train.
At least 15 lakh people witnessed the grand spectacle in the skies, which
turned out to be a sight to behold.
All the approach roads to Marina witnessed traffic jams. Vehicles moved at
a snail’s pace and were seen queued up to a distance of few kms, a few
hours before the air show began.
People started flocking the beach right from early in the morning to have
a glimpse of the IAF’S military prowess.
The arterial Anna Salai, Wallajah Road and the R K Salai leading to the
beach, saw heavy traffic inflow.
The traffic jam was so heavy that several of them could not make it to
the beach front to witness the air show.
Also several areas in the city also witnessed traffic snarls in view of
the event as people used various modes of transport to reach the
beach front.
The traffic jam is likely to ease only around evening as the people
started returning after the event ended around 1315 hrs.
Meanwhile, at least 20 people who were caught in the massive crowd
in Marina fainted and were rushed to hospitals in ambulance after first
aid.
Though the air show lasted little over two hours, the entire event lasted
three hours with the arrival of guests to the venue from 10.00 am.
Though police and Chennai Corporation authorities have made elaborate
arrangements and earmarked various places like Kalaivanar Arnagam and
MLAs hostel campus at Omandurar Government Estate for parking, the
space eventually turned out to be inadequate as the crowd was
unprecedented.
Several people said they had parked their vehicles a few kms away and
walked down to the Marina beach to witness the air show.
