One of the byproduct of urbanization is traffic congestion and before suggesting any solutions to reduce congestion, understanding the present context becomes very important. Study of traffic volumes at busy intersections to find the percentage composition of different vehicle types, directional distribution and peak hour traffic volume is a first step towards understanding the present context of traffic. Hence in the present study, one of the busy intersections in Vellore, namely, Gandhi nagar intersection in Vellore-Katpadi road was selected and traffic flow data was collected using video surveys. It was found that at the selected intersection, the two wheelers and three wheelers alone share 80% of the total traffic when compared to other vehicle types. Nearly 700 trucks and multi axle trailers were observed to pass through the intersection during the analysis period of five hours. That is, on an average 2 trucks/multi axle trailers were passing through the intersection in each minute. As like in other major cities, entry of trucks and other heavy vehicles such as multi axle trailers into the city needs to be banned during peak hours for smooth flow of traffic within city limits. A highest hourly volume of 6939 PCU's was observed between 4 and 5 pm at the selected intersection. By assuming a 10% uniform traffic growth every year, it was found that after about 4 years, i.e., in 2019, the traffic volume at the intersection may reach 10,000 PCU's and may warrant for a grade separator or interchange at the intersection. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.