Kancheepuram: This temple town’s sheen overshadowed by rising traffic congestion and civic problems

After a nearly two-hour drive on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway, a glimpse of the top tiers of Ekambareswarar Temple greets you. By the time you navigate a maze of traffic and enter the core of Kancheepuram, your eyes brush past half a dozen temples. The town displays ancient heritage in all its grandeur, dotted by a multitude of temples and a swarm of textile showrooms exhibiting their silk sarees.

Urban pressure

But the shine, sparkle and splendour end there. The temple town, which has been experiencing a swelling population and a surge in tourists, is stretched and struggles to cope with this increasing burden. From increasing traffic congestion, unorganised parking and encroachments to sewage issues, Kanchipuram district, which will soon house the city’s massive second airport, still only bears a semi-urban character. For a town that has a tremendous potential to be so much more if better initiatives to promote tourism were implemented, little has been done in all these years.

While those coming to a few temples and shop for silk sarees have it anything but easy due to inadequate parking and congestion, the residents face an even bitter deal.

K.S. Krishnamurthy, a resident of Kancheepuram for several decades, said during the weekends and festivals, the traffic congestion turns worse. “Vehicle movement should be banned on the streets around the temple, and those lanes should be exclusively reserved for pedestrians,” he said.

He noted that while Kancheepuram got the underground sewage system nearly five decades ago, these sewer lines have turned ancient. “It is time to replace them. The lines are handling more than their capacity. As a result, we see leakages and overflows every now and then,” he said.

Improved traffic management, additional parking spaces and better solid waste management are some of the immediate needs of this temple town.

Weavers’ concerns

Civic issues aside, in the narrow lanes of the town, skilled artisans who practice the timeless craft of silk weaving said they grapple with many issues including a meteoric rise in prices of raw materials to inadequate wages.

Kumaravel, a silk weaver, said, the district housed thousands of weavers once upon a time, but the number has diminished significantly. Many have left this profession due to lesser wages and better opportunities. “If we weave two sarees a month, we get paid ₹7,000. This doesn’t suffice. For instance, if they work in a company, they would get around ₹500 a day. So, naturally, many have begun to prefer that over this,” he said. They weavers do not find continuous work, which is another reason for their dwindling numbers in the district.

This constituency will soon witness a massive change when the development of the second airport for Chennai city at Parandur is completed.

Staunch opposition

While one part of the Parandur airport project falls under Kancheepuram constituency, the other is in Sriperumbudur.

The airport, set to be built over 5746.18 acres of land at ₹27,400 crore in four phases, is designed to handle 100 million passengers in future. But the farmers and residents of the villages in and around Parandur, who will be displaced, have staunchly opposed the project. They have been holding protests for a long time due to concerns over losing their livelihood and the environmental impact of the project. Subramanian of the Parandur Airport Opposition Joint Movement said, “This airport is unnecessary. The existing Chennai airport [in Meenambakkam] itself doesn’t have much passenger traffic. So why build a new one? If this is built, it could cause flooding not just in this neighbourhood, but in Chennai too.”

A DMK bastion

This temple town is where the DMK founder C.N. Annadurai was born when it was called ‘Conjeevaram’, and became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Though both the dominant Dravidian parties have won on several occasions, the constituency has been a DMK bastion for the past decade.

DMK MLA C.V.M.P. Ezhilarasan said, infrastructure has been improved significantly, including initiatives to extend the underground sewage network to more areas and bring better healthcare facilities. Work is underway to extend the underground sewerage system in areas such as Sevilimedu, Orikkai, Thenampakkam and Nathupettai. Piped water supply too is getting extended to several areas and new pipelines are being laid. Also, installation of sewage treatment plant, preventive measures to stop flooding during monsoon like construction of bunds, creating a district library, knowledge centre, and Mudhalvar Padaippagam were done for the constituency, he said.

He said that traffic congestion will reduce if the silk showrooms move to the outskirts of the city and this has already been proposed.

Published – April 08, 2026 12:27 am IST