Only one right turn on Trinity-Airport Road

Only one right turn on Trinity-Airport Road
The Times of India

Bangalore: It takes around 90 minutes to reach Mumbai by air from here. But you need an hour to cover the distance between Trinity Circle and Airport during peak hours. Only exception: when there’s a VVIP convoy, which takes around 5 minutes.

Under a new plan to decongest the stretch, based on a study conducted by experts, goods vehicles will not be allowed on Airport Road between Trinity Circle and the intersection with Suranjan Das Road during from 8 to 11 am and 4.30 to 8 pm, from Friday. After the ring road intersection leading to Koramangala, right turns will be prohibited on the road at Kodihalli Junction (way to Karnataka Golf Association, KGA), Manipal Hospital junction and Murugesh Palya Junction (near Kemp Fort).

The police are banning all these right turns. “Though we are closing down the right turn in front of the hospital, we are facilitating a Uturn 20 metres away from the hospital. We have done this to avoid inconvenience to the hospital patients,’’ DCP Traffic (East) M.A. Saleem states. He justifies the traffic police initiative with statistics. Airport Road can take 4,400 Passenger Car Units (PCUs) per hour.

Contrary to its capacity, 15,000 PCUs are plying on this road per hour. Apart from this, umpteen numbers of right turns are there on this road. This is hampering vehicular movement and it naturally increases journey time, he adds.“For security reasons, a person has to check in (at the airport) at least an hour before the departure of his flight. If it takes more than an hour (between Trinity Circle and Airport) to reach the airport, one has to start at least three hours before the flight starts. This is something which irritates everybody and we want to reduce these irritations,’’ DCP said.

The decision of the traffic police has not gone well with those who live on the right side of Airport Road.”If they close down right turns indiscriminately, where do we go,’’ a KGA member questions.“Instead of waiting for a right turn near junctions and hampering the movement of vehicles behind, go up to Manipal Hospital and take a U-turn. This will solve your problem and reduces the journey time,’’ DCP replies.Infrastructure projects are in the pipeline and we cannot function with the present shrinking roads, he adds.

Commenting on the infrastructure, another senior officer commented, “Instead of coming out with a flyover at Koramangala - Indiranagar 100-ft road on Airport Road, the government should have thought of constructing grade separators at all intersections on the road. This would have helped the movement of traffic in a better manner.’’