Bangalore Sweatbox

This story illustrates the utter incompetence of whoever is doing urban planning and traffic management in Bangalore. Authorities opened -- two years late -- a "flyover" which would supposedly alleviate congestion at a traditional sore spot. Instead, it made things worse.

Wow -- who expected that??

Newly-opened flyover comes a cropper

Deccan Herald

It appears as though the solution itself ended up becoming the problem. A day after Bangaloreans were 'gifted' the Koramangala-Indiranagar link flyover on Airport Road, road users on Thursday had to put up with an even bigger traffic jam.

The areas around the newly-inaugurated flyover, including residential ones, were choked with traffic during peak hours, pushing people to take deviations or long detours to reach their destination. While on the one end, traffic from Koramangala piled up on the flyover itself, there was heavy congestion till the Indiranagar 12th Main junction located over 500 metres away from the flyover.

 
The reasons

First, the flyover road narrows down to half of its width at a junction on 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, few metres away from the flyover. Traffic being allowed to move on all roads and the absence of traffic signals, only exacerbates the pell-mell.

Secondly, the right turns were closed on 100 Feet Road, making the traffic coming from Koramangala towards the airport, travel extra distances to take a U-turn. Many were forced to venture into residential lanes, triggering jams even there. Chandru, an auto driver, said several roads inside the residential layouts were dead-ends or were 'no entry', making it all the more difficult for vehicles to move about. "This is worse than what I have ever seen," he said.

Deeptha, another road-user, felt the main flyover had failed to deliver what it had promised a few years ago. Deeptha said it took her 40 minutes, instead of the usual 10, to reach Domlur, from Defence Colony, Indiranagar, due to the choc-a-bloc traffic on 100 feet Road. "As the right turns on 100 Feet Road were closed, we were forced to go to Koramangala to reach Domlur. What a mess!," she said.

However, all was calm at the Koramangala end. Sunil, a petty shop owner said there was no traffic congestion and movement of vehicles was smooth throughout the day.

 
Police reaction

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East) M A Saleem said the traffic department will study the traffic movement near the flyover for the next two to three days, before planning the future course of action. "We may have to introduce new medians and U-turns to streamline traffic flow. This will be done in the next one or two weeks," he added.

posted by The Bangalorean @ 7/14/2006