Jammed Junctions: KR Circle

Jammed Junction

Power corridor haunted by traffic snarls

Deccan Herald

Krishna Rajendra Circle is a web of four major roads and one minor road, connecting two hubs of government activities -- Vidhana Soudha and Multi-Storeyed building -- with the northern and southern areas of the city.

Besides, there are five government colleges, and a plethora of government offices around the circle. New one-ways and two-ways have in no way helped ease traffic flow -- in fact, when buses come moving down Sheshadri Road looking like daylight killers, two-wheelers and pedestrians scamper away.

Considering the high student population around this area -- with the Government Arts and Science College, S J Polytechnic, Maharani’s College, Central College and University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering swarming around -- K R Circle is just a disaster waiting to happen.

For instance, the Seshadri Road that leads up to K R Circle used to be badly traffic-ridden earlier. But with the Devaraj Urs Road between Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha now closed forever, this road is carrying the burden of two major roads. Secondly, the Central College Road used to be a one-way earlier. Now, it has been made a two-way without taking into consideration the quantum of traffic that would obviously flow in from KG Road. With this, the bus-stand near Central College has been shifted to Sheshadri Road too -- so buses going to every place, stops only on Sheshadri Road, increasing the pressure on it tremendously. As for Ambedkar Veedhi, which houses both Vidhana Soudha and the M S Building slightly further away, peak-hour rush really peaks when Government offices let out their manpower into the streets at 5 pm every day. And how!

Connecting all this is the Nrupathunga Road, which has been a one-way for over two years now. So forget getting a pedestrian to cross from one part of this road to another -- if you want to go to St Martha’s Hospital or the Police Headquarters, it is better you find something that goes on wheels. “Traffic is let out either from Sheshadri Road or from Ambedkar Veedhi into Nrupathunga Road. This leads to continuous traffic, with no respite for even a second,” said Chandraprabha, a government employee who has to go there everyday.

Added to all this is the fact that a number of two and four-wheelers try to take the Cubbon Park road to get away from the pollution and for a whiff of fresh air. However, the excess traffic flow into Cubbon Park is beginning to show its wear and tear. “All protestors take out a rally in this area, the buses come hurtling down and take risky turns -- sometimes, you cannot make out which way they are going until they swerve and take a blind turn just because the signal turns green,” said Ramesh Kumar, a vendor.