Introducing ‘the built-in speed breaker’ for school zones

A school zone needs speed breakers, which have been provided on Third Street, Vimala Nagar (two neatly laid speed breakers exist on this street), but these real speed breakers are eclipsed by that ghost speed breaker, which is essentially the road being so battered that it exerts the power and influence of a speed breaker on the vehicular traffic. This non-existent speed breaker gains prominence after a downpour, when this section of road opens up further, as it did following the showers of January 25-26, 2026. While the battered section slows down traffic, it also impedes it, making commuting unpleasant, and potentially dangerous too, as motorcyclists can have a fall negotiating the potholes. The solution is simple: relay Third Street in Vimala Nagar the proper way with bitumen topping, doing away with the ghost speed breaker, but keeping the real ones.

“Less seen, but more effective” is the maxim echoing across modern spaces meant for living and moving. Utilities hidden under surfaces (example: induction stove slipped under the kitchentop with only the cooking surface staying visible). Utilities extending from surfaces (example: a bed blending into the wall being pulled down at bedtime). Utilities indistinguishable from surfaces (example: Third Street in Vimala Nagar, a school zone where the road itself functions as speed breaker). 

Ever since the Medavakkam section of Velachery Main Road began to be defined by CMRL work more than anything else and the left turn at the junction of Semmozhi Salai and Velachery Main Road started providing movement down the latter road as restricted as that of a piston in a cylinder, interior roads gained prominence. They became the overnight celebrities, social media influencers if you like, with sudden traffic, often overwhelming them.

In this category of interior roads are those found in Babu Nagar, Vimala Nagar and Neela Nagar in Medavakkam (under Medavakkam panchayat), new highlight marks on commuters’ road map. Off Medavakkam Mambakkam Main Road, the roads in these neighbourhoods function somewhat like a nerve plexus. They are a ganglion of minor nerves providing connectivity between the spinal Velachery Main Road and Medavakkam Mambakkam Main Road. The added pounding due to motorists preferring interior movement rather than taking a right turn at the Semmozhi Salai-Velachery Main Road junction and threading their journey through the U-turn near Jeyachandran Textiles and climbing on to the Medavakkam flyover towards Tambaram.  

Following the battering they received during the 2025 North East monsoon, the roads in three neighbourhoods were relaid, notably Babu Nagar First, Second and Third Main Road. Even then, Third Street in Vimala Nagar received just a patch-up, being brutally honest, a parody of a patchwork, debris wheeled in to fill the cracks. Days after seeing the light, the patchwork began to unravel. The worst part of the road happens to be the patchwork carried out near a school, Saraswathi Vidyalaya and a temple, Sri Chandramouleeswarar Thirukoil.

A school zone needs speed breakers, which have been provided on Third Street, Vimala Nagar (two neatly laid speed breakers exist on this street), but these real speed breakers are eclipsed by that ghost speed breaker, which is essentially the road being so battered that it exerts the power and influence of a speed breaker on the vehicular traffic. This non-existent speed breaker gains prominence after a downpour, when this section of road opens up further, as it did following the showers of January 25-26, 2026.

While the battered section slows down traffic, it also impedes it, making commuting unpleasant, and potentially dangerous too, as motorcyclists can have a fall negotiating the potholes. The solution is simple: relay Third Street in Vimala Nagar the proper way with bitumen topping, doing away with the ghost speed breaker, but keeping the real ones.