Dharna to protest delay causes further slow down

Dharna to protest delay causes further slow down

The movement of vehicles was disrupted for over three hours at the always-busy Airport road.

Deccan Herald

While the traffic along the busy Airport Road is heavy even under normal circumstances due to the ongoing construction of the flyover, a demonstration staged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the project site threw the traffic totally out of gear between 11.30 am and 2.30 pm on Wednesday.

Ironically enough, the dharna, led by Shantinagar BJP MLA S Raghu, had been called to protest against the delay in the execution of the project.

Passengers who were to catch flights had several tense moments, as traffic started moving slower than a snail. The movement of vehicles was disrupted for over three hours, even as police personnel struggled to divert most vehicles away from this stretch and tried to prod along vehicles headed towards the airport.

While vehicles coming from the airport were diverted via Indiranagar and C V Raman Nagar, vehicles from the Koramangala side on Outer Ring Road were just stranded before they could even hit Airport Road.

“Construction of the flyover was started in February 2003 and was supposed to be completed by April 2004. But eight months after the deadline, only 26 per cent of the construction is completed. The contractor has stopped work, demanding more money. Cost of the Rs 26.69 crore project has gone up several times,” said Raghu.

The Bangalore Development Authority, which commissioned the project, has cancelled the tender of the contractor -- UP State Bridge Corporation -- and announced plans to re-tender the construction. Even if work starts in a week, it will take till October 2005 before being operational.

“We have submitted several representations to the BDA commissioner. If a 15-month project takes over 36 months, what will the people do? Besides, the cost is likely to go up to Rs 40 crore. If this is the concern being shown to such an important road, what about other projects?” he questioned.

The dharna was called off after two BDA engineers were sent to accept the BJP’s memorandum.