As BBMP and BDA battle it out, motorists on ORR suffer

Bengaluru: For commuters usually take the Outer Ring Road, there was a shocker on Tuesday afternoon. Vehicles did not move an inch from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm and school buses, loaded with children, got piled up.

The chaos grew by the minute and by 5 pm, the traffic between RMZ Ecospace and Agara Junction came to a grinding halt, but there was only one policeman to deal with the gridlock, said commuters.

The present situation is thanks to the apathy of BBMP and BDA officials, who are at loggerheads over who should develop the service roads and alternate roads.

According to the residents, the traffic movement on Outer Ring Road has been severely hampered in the last one week due to the heavy downpour. The bad condition of roads, lack of asphalt on roads carrying heavy vehicle population and water-logged roads have deeply affected the vehicular movement, they said.

“On rainy days, it takes at least 45 minutes to travel 4 km, especially near RMZ Ecospace. Although the main roads has been asphalted, the service roads and alternative roads are in a pathetic condition. In a bid to avoid the main road, many commuters take interconnecting roads and due to water-logging and severe potholes, the vehicular movement becomes slow,” said Ravi, a techie. On Tuesday, citizens got down from  buses and private vehicles to man the traffic and clear the chaos.

Regarding the bad conditions of roads, BBMP Executive Engineer Raghavendra Prasad maintained that the BDA had given an undertaking that it would fix the roads and had even collected restoration charges from different government agencies to develop the road. However, not even a brick has been moved on these roads.

Prasad, said, “As per the BDA Act, the BDA has to fully develop roads before handing them over to BBMP. The BBMP should only maintain the roads and we are not supposed to spend money on asphalting. The BDA, which agreed to develop the service roads and alternate roads, has failed to take up any works. Most importantly, the ORR does not come under the BBMP purview.”

The BDA officials have maintained that since the Authority has to hand over the roads to BBMP, it will not asphalt any of the service roads. Caught in this Catch 22 situation, the hapless common man is being punished for no fault of his!