Flyovers galore, but no bypass for BBMP mess

Flyovers are meant to ease traffic although in Bengaluru, they achieve the opposite effect. The city is always reeling from a slew of new construction projects, where traffic bottlenecks, mountains of debris and inordinate delays have caused untold inconvenience to citizens. Ramamurthy Nagar junction and ongoing underpass work at Horamavu and Okalipuram are some of the current black spots for motorists and commuters alike. Traffic police and experts say that flyovers are proposed without consultation or study and end up adding to the problem, reports Nikhil Gangadhar.

Buying a vehicle in Bengaluru is a joy until you take  it out on the roads that are chock-a-block with traffic most days, Sundays being no exception. But it’s not just the number of vehicles on the roads that cause the traffic pile-ups, but also the construction work on several flyovers and underpasses in various parts of the city, some of which don’t serve any purpose at all and are testimony to the poor planning that has gone into channelling traffic.

Among the worst black spots are the  Ramamurthy Nagar junction, near the ongoing work on an underpass at Horamavu, the Hennur flyover, and Okalipuram underpass. The construction is so slow here that the traffic has been a mess for a while, especially as the roads are narrow too.

Several motorists complain that it takes them not less 20 minutes to cross junctions where construction work is underway for some infrastructure project or the other in peak hour traffic.  Says Mr Malthesh Mohan Kumar of Ramamurthy Nagar, “There is a small bridge, hardly 40 feet wide, connecting the Outer Ring Road and Ramamurthy Nagar with a   railway track running beneath. Owing to the number of vehicles using it,  the traffic police blocks one side of the bridge for traffic and allows it only from the other side for a while before reversing the process. This has led to utter chaos and holds up commuters for over 20 minutes. If there is no  traffic police at the spot, things get worse and it takes over an hour to cross the bridge.”

While the civic authorities have begun work to expand the bridge, this is only creating more chaos, according to him. “The point is  they should have planned the bridge better to begin with as everyone know that the city’s population is increasing and so also the number of vehicles on its roads,” reasons Mr Kumar, who works in a private radio station.

Commuters have a similar problem at the Horamavu, Okalipuram and Ejipura junction. Ms Elina Mary, a psychology lecturer and a resident of  Horamavu Agara says the construction of a bridge at the spot is taking forever and in the process the traffic suffers. “At the pace at which they are going, it doesn’t  seem like they will complete the bridge any time soon. The entire area is filled with dust and smoke from the stranded vehicles, which need to wait for quite some time to get across the junction. We can only hope that the construction is completed soon and the bridge is thrown open to traffic,” she sighs.

Mr Aarav Das, an architect and a resident of Horamavu, too believes that the problem lies with lack of planning. “The city has grown by leaps and bounds,  but without proper planning. The roads are too narrow for the number of vehicles using them. And work on widening roads, building more flyovers and underpasses only adds to the problem and doesn’t solve it. If the government doesn’t do something to keep the city from bursting at the seams with people and vehicles,  Bengaluru will soon become an unlivable city,” he warns.

Ongoing projects

• Underpass at Horamavu main road
• Flyover on Hennur main road
• Extension of existing bridge at Ramamurthy Nagar junction
• Underpass at Okalipuram
• White topping at Bannerghatta Road, Mysore Road, Outer Ring Road (KR Puram-Old Madras Road stretch).

Civic work taken up without study, consultation: Traffic police
If commuters are fed up with the city’s unplanned infrastructure, so are the traffic police. Suggesting that the civic  agencies  carry out a  feasibility study before deciding on constructing a flyover or underpass at a particular spot, a senior officer with the traffic police says, “The BBMP should do a survey among people, who regularly use the route in question,  and local residents to see if a flyover or underpass at the spot will make their  life easier or  add to the congestion. Unfortunately, the civic authorities take up the work without proper study or consultation.”

Referring to the KR Puram cable stayed bridge as an example, he adds. “That particular bridge is of no use as it was constructed keeping in mind the situation on this stretch 10 years ago. They did not  build it keeping the future in mind and now it has added to the problem  as the major junction near the bridge has a large number of vehicles plying at all times of the day We also have the Metro work underway near the bridge. As a reult motorists are caught in a traffic jam  here quite often.” . The only solution , in his view, is to speed up the  work on building infrastructure in the city as this will gradually help in easing the traffic conditions.

Mr R Hithendra, Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic), believes better co-ordination among departments can help  speed up work on building city infrastructure. 

“Whenever flyovers or underpasses are being built, the departments or authorities concerned should work in co-ordination to ensure that the work is completed in time. For example, we received numerous complaints about the white topping work causing traffic snarls and now we have heard that the authorities want to stop the work. This is true of other projects too. They should be better managed," he says, pointing out that the  police can only regulate traffic at these junctions and nothing else.

Guest column: Civic bodies are adding to the chaos, says Ashish Verma, dept of civil engineering, IISC
Flyovers and underpasses are constructed to ease the traffic, but in reality they  add to the mess. These under construction projects disrupt traffic during and even after construction. Unless the government takes a strong decision to doing something about it, this will remain an ongoing problem .

It should have realised by this time that the city has grown as much as it can geographically and in population and  cannot grow anymore. If it does, it will lead to shortage of power, water and open spaces. The government should start coming up with ideas to put a cap on the city’s population and stick to its boundaries without thinking about expanding it anymore.

We should have more electric vehicles on the roads to help contain the pollution and there should be a complete stop on registering vehicles as otherwise the situation will be too difficult to handle. It’s  already late and decisions should be taken immediately.

If public transport is improved  use of private vehicles will fall. Today our city  is filled with private cabs and the reason is lack of public transport. These cabs are filling the gap left by public transport and in the process are adding to the number of vehicles on our roads.