Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Hellish Roads 11: Hudson Circle


Traffic jam is a regular affair near Town Hall and Hudson Circle. Though most roads in this area have been made one-way, they give little relief.

HELLISH ROADS-11
Flood of vehicles, traffic at sea
HUDSON CIRCLE, TOWN HALL JUNCTION
Times of India

City’s nerve centres — Hudson Circle and Town Hall junctions — are flooded with vehicles and traffic moves at a snail’s pace all the time. Even if it is a slight obstruction, a rally for example, life comes to a grinding halt.

The two junctions are major change over points with intersecting roads like K.G.Road/District Office Road known as Kempe Gowda Road (from West), Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road (from East), Kasturba Road (from North), J.C. Road (from South), Devanga Sangha Hostel Road, Nrupathunga Road and Mission Road.

1 How to decongest these two junctions?
Various studies conducted by the traffic police since 1998 indicate that the following infrastructure developments are needed.

• A flyover from District Office Road (K.G.Road) to S.J.P. Road.
• A subway from District Office Road and Nrupathunga Road to Mission Road.
• A flyover from BCC office to N.R. Road/SJP Road and a mini flyover at Subbaiah Circle.
• A grade separator with a capacity to accommodate 3,500 passenger car units (PCU) an hour near the Town Hall to take care of vehicles plying from N.R. Road, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road and District office Road.

2 What is preventing the authorities from taking up the identi fied projects?
• If a flyover is constructed, the Town Hall, a heritage building would be almost lost. The government will not give the green signal to any such project. Obstacles will come from environmentalists.
• A grade separator at Town Hall is a costly proposition. Apart from this, a flyover/grade separator will clash with the proposed ELRTS interchange stations.

3 What the studies say: Make more roads one-ways. Grade separators at Subbaiah Circle and Shivaji theatre junction. A grade separator starting from BCC office and passing through the Pai Vihar Road and then joining S.J.P/N.R. Road.

4 What traffic police say? All the roads here have been made oneways. We’ve done our best, beyond this we need roads above the roads, flyovers and grade separators. We’ll further improve the situation. — DCP, Traffic (West), M. A. Saleem.

5 What people say: Ban slow moving vehicles on the roads. Enforce lane discipline. Have dedicated lanes for buses. Streamline autorickshaw movement. Don’t allow goods vehicles on roads during peak hours. Have sufficient pedestrian crossings.

EXPERT OPINION

Prof C. E. G. Justo, highway expert

•Widen the narrow road between Town Hall junction and BCC office.
•Provide a grade separator through OTC Road and joining on S.J.P. Road.
•Enact a law — Tradable Development Rights — which facilitates easier acquisition of private property for road widening.

1 Comments:

At Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at 3:47:00 PM GMT+5:30, Blogger Chennaizombie said...

One reason for the congestion is : Side lanes are all too small , and often congested with the lorries bringing industrial goods. This could be reduced by restricting lorry movement on these roads like say only after 10 in the night and upto 8 in the morning. This will save a lot of traffic. Also if the roads are made proper that would smoothen traffic to some extent.
One more things that can be done is to regulate traffic better near the SP Road junction by having the bus stop a little further , which will reduce congestion of traffic flowing into SP Road.
If possible the road connecting KR Mqarket to the bylanes behind Canara Bank may be widened / Decongested/Relaid to allow for traffic to KR Market and save traffic on Hundon circle. The idea of flyovers should be discontinued since the BDA and the UPSBC makes a shitty job of constructing these flyovers and fucks up the entire system in the end.

 

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