Grade separator at Trinity Circle

Grade separator at Trinity Circle
BCC will take up this project once it completes its other ongoing projects
Times of India

The Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) will construct a grade separator at the Trinity Circle, one of the busiest junctions of the city to ensure smooth traffic flow, according to BCC's Engineer-in-chief Rame Gowda.
Speaking on the project, he said, "the proposal was suggest by an expert committee that was constituted by the government to identify bottlenecks in the city a couple of years ago. The BCC was scheduled to take up the project much earlier but could not take it up for various reasons. Right now we are busy with an underpass at Rajajinagar Entrance, and two grade separators at the National College, Basavanagudi and Modi Circle, West of Chord Road. Once we are through with these, we will take up the Trinity Circle grade separator.

The Trinity Circle is at the junction of four roads, i.e. Mahatma Gandhi Road, Trinity Church Road, Ulsoor Tank Road, and Old Madras Road. However, all the roads do not meet at one location. Two offset locations within about 50 metres. The junction currently has extremely heavy traffic congestion with intercity and interstate vehicles plying on this road.

Giving an account of the traffic volume here, the Engineer-in-chief said the traffic density at this junction at peak hours is recorded at 9,350 PCU/hr. Such is the traffic here that the city police have restricted rightturning vehicles from Old Madras Road to Ulsoor Tank Road, however right turns are allowed from M G Road into Trinity Church Road and from Ulsoor Tank Road to M G Road. Here again the traffic congestion is caused mainly because of rightturning vehicles that come in the way of through-straight vehicles according to the expert committee. To further substantiate the theory, the panel even conducted a study that revealed that an average of 1,000 PCU/hr take right turns. So it was inferred that a grade separator here would relive the congestion. Further, the committee also stated that all the link roads were carrying traffic much above their capacity.

The plan

The committee, while chalking out the concept plan, has taken into account the proposed metro rail viaduct alignment that runs along M G Road from Mayo Hall and travels across the intersection, turning left into Ulsoor Tank Road. Also, a metro rail station building has been planned on M G Road opposite Oberoi Hotel. Certain other constraints that the Corporation has to sort out are acquiring defense land and shifting of utilities such as water lines and underground power cables running from M G Road to Ulsoor Tank Road.

The concept plan worked out by the panel is simple and cost-effective, and hence recommends a right-turning flyover from M G Road to Trinity Circle. This envisages a two-lane unidirectional right-turning flyover, allowing traffic to move smoothly without signals from M G Road towards Trinity Circle. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 10.5 crores. This includes cost of land acquisition, design and construction supervision, cost escalation, and shifting of utilities.