Bengaluru: A sea of vehicles crawled on Ballari Road on Saturday morning to catch the air show at the Yelahanka Airforce Station. Traffic snarls began at Hebbal Flyover as early as 7 am and continued till the air show venue, causing inconvenience to those going to and coming from the Kempegowda International Airport, regular commuters and those travelling towards Hyderabad. The evening traffic was no different, and gridlocks had a cascading effect in different parts of the city.
Wing Commander M.D. Singh, Director, Defence Exhibition Organisation, told Deccan Chronicle that more than one lakh people visited the venue on Saturday. “We are yet to arrive at the final figure of visitors on Saturday. But it certainly crossed the one-lakh mark,” he said.
Though the traffic police had planned enough diversions and barricading, the volume of vehicles was so high that they could do nothing but watch the traffic increasing on the road every passing minute.
There was also commotion at the entry gates of the venue as a number of visitors had arrived at wrong entrances and were struggling to go from one entrance to another. The confusion caused further jams on the road and at entry points leading to the venue. Many of the ticket and pass holders were forced to watch the show sitting inside their car, outside the venue.
The police further contributed to the mess by diverting traffic onto the service road from the main stretch. Many villages, like Amruthahalli, that can be accessed only through the service road were literally cut off for the day. Local residents could not even cross the road or take out their vehicles from their houses. As the situation worsened, the police opened an additional lane on the flyover to give direct access to vehicles moving towards the airport and Hyderabad.
But it was the crowd that was going for the air show that was hit the hardest. “We had planned to watch the morning air show, but we reached only towards the end of it. The traffic police too seemed helpless as vehicles started entering Ballari Road from all directions. The traffic worsened as we reached Hebbal and Yelahanka. We now have to wait till evening to see the second show,” said a visitor to the show.
Security officials at the access gates said that a number of vehicles without valid passes tried to enter the venue, but had to be sent back. The vehicles returning to the main road, added to the traffic chaos. “The entry points are close to the main road and the confusion at the gates caused the gridlocks,” the officer said.
‘Organisers bit off more than they could chew’
Traffic jams on Ballari Road, which leads to the Aero India venue, have angered the traffic police, who are in the direct line of fire from the commuters. The traffic police, refusing to take the blame for the jam, said that the organisers had not given them the estimate of number of visitors. “The Yelahanka Airforce Station and surroundings cannot hold more than 20,000 vehicles for parking. How can the organisers give out 2-3 lakh passes,” asked a senior traffic official.
He pointed out that the highway is close to the access gate. As security check-ups took time, the vehicles had to wait, causing traffic jams on the main road. “The organisers did not inform us that so many people with vehicles would arrive on a single day. The organisers should have either restricted the number of people visiting the air show or ferried visitors in well-organised shuttle services from the venue to parking places that are situated far from the show site,” he said.
