A 2018 post by DMK-supporting journalist Lakshmi Subramanian, in which she questioned the need for an eight-lane road while mocking the government’s inability to maintain existing roads, has resurfaced after she recently complained about a massive traffic jam on the Trichy-Chennai highway.
In June 2018, Subramanian had quote-tweeted a post highlighting the poor condition of NH67 between Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam. The original post challenged politicians and ministers to ride a motorcycle on the stretch and experience the condition of the road themselves.
Responding to it, Subramanian wrote, “They cannot even properly maintain the existing roads, and now they are talking about an eight-lane road to go to the town.”
The post was made during a period when road expansion and the proposed Salem-Chennai eight-lane greenfield corridor were facing intense political and public opposition in Tamil Nadu. It was the DMK ecosystem that ensured the project was scrapped and Subramanian was a very prominent part of the ecosystem.
Fast-forward eight years, and Subramanian herself took to X on 23 August 2026, to complain about congestion on the Trichy-Chennai highway.
“The entire Trichy – Chennai highway is completely choked, near Ulundurpet. Over 10 kms for the past two hours due to road closure. There is no roadside assistance to man the traffic,” she posted.
The two posts concern different highways and different circumstances. The irony cannot be greater: Tamil Nadu’s growing traffic volumes require not merely maintenance of existing roads but also the creation of additional high-capacity corridors. And it was Lakshmi Subramanian who opposed the infrastructure herself years ago.
This is an apparent contradiction: questioning the need for major road expansion in 2018 and complaining about the consequences of traffic disruption on an existing highway in 2026.
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