In pics: Traffic snarls in Chennai as a swarm of people leaves the city for Diwali!

For non-native people of Chennai, leaving the city during the festive seasons has never been easy - cozy as they endure a mammoth task combined with a lot of mess and chaos though they have made a good plan. Whenever they tend to make plans to leave the city for their hometown during major festivals, the first thing that would haunt them is the traffic on important stretches of the city that connect with the outskirts. 

During such festival seasons, it's typical for Chennai to witness hefty traffic across the city as lakhs and lakhs of people make a move to their hometown. Particularly, crossing the stretch of Perungalathur to Chengalpattu might test your patience as vehicles would move by an inchmeal, and what would take minutes time to cross during other days would take hours.

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A big race: A cluster of people is seen trying to enter a train compartment in Egmore Station, Chennai as they leave the city for Diwali - Oct 21, 2022

 

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Emergency entry: A man is seen getting into a train through an emergency exit window in a race to win a seat in Chennai's Egmore station - Oct 21, 2022

 

As Diwali is just days away, bustling Chennai has become more chaotic for the past few days and since the festival of lights falls on Monday -October 24 this year, a swarm of people are moving out of the city during the weekend. For the past two days, the visuals from Koyambedu and various bus stations and two big railway stations of Egmore and Central were hit by a sea of people as they were rushing to their hometowns. 

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In vigil: Thousands of people stand at Koyambedu bus terminus in Chennai to catch buses to their hometowns - Oct 21, 2022

 

In the wake of the festival week, the state government has arranged thousands of special buses from Chennai to ply the people to various parts of the state. The reservation cabin at the Koyambedu bus terminus was busy and active all day while thousands thronged to the railway stations. The visuals from Egmore station show that the people are entering the coaches through the emergency exit to win a seat. 

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Terrific traffic: A long line of vehicles is seen near Chengalpattu as lakhs of people are moving out of Chennai for Diwali - Oct 22, 2022

 

According to reports, around 3,300 special buses have left Chennai on Friday alone in which over 1,60,000 people traveled to their hometowns. Thousand more are waiting for their time and a photo from Chengalpattu on Saturday has shown the long line of traffic that is said to have been in place for more than five kilometers. The state transport department said that over 2,43,299 people left Chennai in days' time for Diwali and over 1,74,376 people are waiting to leave. Likewise, the government has also arranged special buses to Chennai from across the state after the Diwali holidays. 

 

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