Bengaluru's first flyover cries for urgent repair

Bengaluru: Bengaluru city’s first and one of the busiest flyover at Sirsi Circle, popularly known Mysore Road flyover, has become a dangerous stretch due to poor maintenance and movement of heavy vehicles.

The motorway is damaged and potholes have surfaced at many places, making it accident-prone. The patchwork asphalting has only added to motorists’ woes.

The traffic department says it has written numerous times to BBMP engineers to repair this stretch, but in vain. From 9 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to 9.30 pm, vehicles move at a crawling pace.

The main reason for slow moving traffic is the numerous potholes dotting the flyover. Most two-wheeler riders complain that it is very dangerous to use this Mysore road flyover.

"If a vehicle breaks down here, it makes the situation worse and for the two-wheeler. Vehicles coming from Town Hall side cannot slow down or stop suddenly due to the slope. It is dangerous, especially for two-wheelers. The stretch towards the Sirsi Circle end is an accident prone zone because of poor maintenance. Almost daily we see at least two to three vehicles involved accidents,’’ said Purushotham P., an advocate and regular user of the flyover. 

BBMP had taken up the repair of flyover five years back, but it has not done anything much since then, though the poor condition of the flyover has been highlighted many times in the media and other forums.

“Filling potholes is not our job, but we have been doing this. In fact, to fix the damaged portion of the road where the accident took place and most of them are two-wheeler because of this patchwork. They drive at high speeds and risk skidding," said traffic constable attached to V.V. Puram traffic police station.

The flyover was constructed by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) in the late 90s at a cost of Rs 97 crore and was opened to traffic in 1998. It however needs regular maintenance, but the BBMP has been lackadaisical. In fact in recent years BBMP replaced only fixed the joints, but not the tarmac. 

Akshya R., a resident of Chamarajpet, said BBMP had taken up repair works on the flyover in 2013. “This is the busiest, but a very bad road.  It was shut for three months when the road surface was removed, joints were replaced and entire stretch was re-laid. It was fine for some time but potholes started surfacing again because of poor quality work and movement of heavy trucks and buses. BBMP should take up the work at the earliest and this time they should carry out total asphalting, instead of patchwork. In addition, out of the 59 street lights on this stretch, most are not functioning and they too need to be fixed.”

The flyover was constructed using precast concrete slabs. The expansion joints are used between two slabs to absorb rise in temperature caused by vehicle movement. L&T’s maintenance contract ended in 2001. Between 2008 and 2010, BBMP floated tenders at least four times, but there were no takers. In 2013, Canfield India Ltd was entrusted with the task of replacing the finger-type joints at a cost of Rs 2.65 crore. City Mayor R. Sampath Raj told Deccan Chronicle, "Yes, I know that there is problem in that flyover. We need traffic police department’s permission to block movement of vehicles. So we will discuss this issue with them to solve it."  

O&A with BBMP Chief Engineer K.T. Nagaraj

We will take up repairs after monsoon: KT Nagaraj

Have you received any complaints regarding the poor condition of Mysore Road flyover?
We have received the oral complaints from traffic police, but not from the public. 

In 2013, the stretch was closed for repairs. Is there any plan to do so in near future?
Yes, we are planning to close it for another few days to asphalt the entire flyover. It will be done only after this monsoon.

There are 59 street lights on flyover, but only a few of them function?
We will look into this issue immediately.