Bengaluru: Every morning as Ashish heads to his office on Museum Road from his house in Doddabanasawadi he is worried about reaching on time. Once he reaches Banasawadi Road on his scooter he wonders how long it will take to cover the stretch. Will he make it on time, or get a shelling from his boss again.
On a normal day it takes half an hour. Although he leaves 45 minutes to one hour early, it is at the left turn towards Banaswadi Garrison that traffic begins to crawl.
Past Ayyappa temple, he turns right and it becomes excruciatingly slow as he has to make his way through the narrow Banaswadi flyover, also known as ‘Khyber Pass’ of Bengaluru.
The flyover which has a loop leading to Kammanahalli and a branch-off towards Old Madras Road and on to Koramangala, is virtually a single lane divided into two.
From where it begins at the convergence of the Banaswadi Road and Chikkabanaswadi Road from Jai Jawan Nagar, and where it ends at Mukunda Theatre, the flyover is a nightmare for motorists.
The flyover was built to avoid the traffic jams at the railway crossing which mainly served the Indian Oil depot below. But building it was mired in problems. On the one side there were houses in Kammanahalli, on the other the land was owned by the Defence authorities.
The Defence establishment, as always, was zealous about protecting its land, and would not part with any. The result was an extremely narrow. The flyover is 66 metres long and 13.5 metres wide and has two ramps of 244 metres and 162 metres in length. There are two loops, of 140 metres and 325 metres length, as well.
It took five years to complete the flyover and cost Rs 6 crore. While the pile-up of vehicles on the two sides of the railway level crossing may now be a thing of the past, the increased traffic load has brought the problem back to square one.
As adequate land could not be acquired, the two ramps are narrow. The service roads below the bridge are narrow and cannot cope with peak hour traffic. The flyover has no pedestrian walkways.
The residents of the area now have to manage with the relatively narrow service roads to go towards the Indian Oil Corporation storage depot and Ramaswamypalya.
And to add to the headache, a posse of traffic policemen lurk at Chikkabanaswadi road just before it joins at the beginning of the flyover, and pounce on unsuspecting motorists.
The pain of the commuters does not end with the flyover at Mukunda theatre. From there it should have been an easier drive till ITC flyover. But now a new mall, Orion East has come up and it has increased traffic volumes on the road, leading to jams.
Any attempt by the BBMP to widen the road is met with resistance from the locals. Two years ago, the BBMP marked either side of the road for demolition, but that plan is off now, as some residents went to court.
So, beginning at the Fire station and ending at ITC flyover, it is a journey of pain for commuters with little hope of any relief on the horizon.
