Commuters from the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) can hope for a smooth ride to the central business district as the government plans to improve and widen the Hebbal flyover and five other important roads of the city. This is part of the new government's effort to develop Bangalore and beat traffic congestion.

During the meeting of stakeholders of the city —BBMP, BDA, traffic police, BWSSB, BMRDA, Bangalore Urban district, BMTC and BMRCL— on Monday, the government decided that widening of six important roads should be taken up on a priority basis.

Widening will be taken up on Ramanamaharshi Road from Mekhri Circle to Windsor Manor Junction, Outer Ring Road between Silk Board Junction and Jayadeva Hospital Flyover, K R Puram between Benniganahalli and Mahadevapura Flyover, Nagawara Junction towards Hebbal, Bannerghatta Road between Bangalore Dairy and Sagar Apollo Hospital, and Hebbal Flyover. Traffic police suggested that the government widen these roads at the earliest.

"Without going in for acquisition of new property, proposed road widening will be done on existing property. Preparation of estimates is under way," Bangalore incharge minister Ramalinga Reddy said on Tuesday. BBMP also plans to widen Mission Road between BBMP head office and Subbaiah Circle.

The broad picture

Hebbal Flyover: After opening of the elevated road from Kodigehalli junction via Yelahanka all along NH-7 up to Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), huge volume of unchecked traffic will come from NH-7 and take Hebbal flyover to reach the city. The main north-south segment of the flyover has only 4-lane divided carriageway. This will not be sufficient to take 6-lane of traffic coming from NH-7. There will be huge congestion if the flyover is not widened as elevated road is expected to be completed in next six months.

Ramanamaharshi road from Mekhri Circle to Windsor Manor junction: It takes 7-8 minutes to cross through this 1-km bottleneck as traffic piles up near Cauvery Junction. In 2009-10, BBMP started widening the road after obtaining land from five owners of Bangalore Palace Grounds.

Outer ring road (ORR) between Silk Board junction and Jayadeva Hospital flyover: There are six flyovers on ORR between Marathahalli and Central Silk Board junction. Entire traffic of these flyovers from north and eastern Bangalore comes to Silk Board Junction without stoppage. Due to only 4-lane carriageway between Silk Board and Jayadeva flyover, huge traffic congestion is experienced here especially by the IT professionals. "The pavements on both the sides on this stretch are very wide," Reddy said.

KR Puram between Benniganahalli and Mahadevapura flyover: Thousands of buses ply on the stretch towards K R Puram, ITPL and Marathahalli. The road below the hanging bridge near railway station is too narrow. Existing roads can't take high volume of traffic going towards ITPL and Marathahalli. Large pedestrian movement on the road below the bridge hampers traffic.

Nagawara junction towards Hebbal: The BMTC bus stops cause obstruction to traffic at Nagawara junction. During rain, water stands and height of the road needs to be increased. Improvement of road connecting Nagawara junction and Thanisandra is also on cards.

Bannerghatta Road between Bangalore Dairy and Sagar Apollo Hospital: The passage of hundreds of vehicles to IT companies cause huge congestion here. Added to this are three marriage halls on the stretch.

Tackling Hudson Circle

An elevated road connecting Minerva Circle and Kempegowda bus station or at least three flyovers connecting these places has been proposed. If Hudson Circle is blocked for an hour, entire city comes to standstill as this connects the entire north-south and east-west traffic of the city. The volume of traffic is as high as 24,000 PCUs per hour during peak hours. Major problem is close proximity of traffic intersections at Town Hall junction, N R Square, Halasurugate police station junction, police corner junction, Hudson Circle and Devanga junction, all within a radius of 200 metres.

Source: Times of India

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