Woeful west on slow track, motorists in misery

Woeful west on slow track, motorists in misery
Deccan Herald

It may well be a case of devil and deep sea for road users of Bangalore West for both a yes or a no to infrastructure projects is likely to invite a lot of inconvenience.

Motorists would have already zoomed under the subway at the busy Modi Road-Chord Road junction, Rajajinagar entrance, and the extra carriageway in Nehrunagar, had the utility providers stuck to their deadline.

But it seems to be an endless misery for motorists in Bangalore West where all infrastructure projects have suffered delays.

All the three mega city infrastructure projects undertaken by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike have crossed their deadlines for completion – some of them are nearly one year past the deadlines.

More woe to add

Besides, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has launched its flyover work near the Anandrao Circle. In addition, the civic body is planning to take up three more grade separator projects at the Vijayanagar entrance, Malleswaram Circle and Yeshwanthpur Circle shortly, and simultaneously.

Result: Chaotic traffic in almost all parts of the City’s West area, especially in places surrounding the project sites. At peak hours, vehicles already pile up for several hundred metres and traffic moves at a snail’s pace. Moreover, the project sites are in a bad shape, leading to a bumpy and jerky drive.

“With this, most places in the western part of the City will get congested. One has to brave driving on pothole-ridden, narrow roads near the project sites here. Traffic movement will become slower and unsafe if all the three proposed projects are taken up now,” traffic expert M N Srihari said.

Possible precautions

However, having taken up the projects, the utility providers should ensure that they are completed on time. The BMP and BDA must take precautionary measures like construction of diversion roads. “If they (BMP and BDA) do not mend their ways, chaos on roads will get much worse,” he warned.

Before taking up any project, the BMP should have a blueprint of the utility lines passing under the project sites. Otherwise, the contractor will have a tough job shifting these lines, and it will lead to delay in completion of the project. In fact, this is what has happened with many projects in the City, Mr Srihari explained.

BMP Technical Advisor R Jaiprasad, however, said that there was no other option but to take up all the projects at a time.

“For, if we take up one after another, we may have to wait for at least 12 years for the sixth one to take off. So citizens have to co-operate with the BMP in the interest of infrastructure development,” he said.

BMP Engineer-in-Chief Rame Gowda said that Bangalore West is a congested and thickly-populated zone.

Hence, there will be some inconvenience to citizens whenever a major project is taken up. Moreover, steps have been initiated for traffic flow through diversion roads. Though there is some delay in implementation, all of them are nearing completion, he added.

On the proposed projects, he said that a tender has been called for three grade separator projects and it will be finalised soon.



RAJAJINAGAR

*Status of Project: Delayed by 10 months
*Work began: March 2003
*Project executor: Nagarjuna Construction Company
*Reasons for delay: Land acquisition problem and slow pace of work
*Fresh deadline: August 2005

NEHRUNAGAR

*Status of project: Delayed by three months
*Work began in: November 2004
*Executor: Railways
*Reasons for delay: Delay in changing train timings on this route
*Fresh deadline: July 2005

MODI-CHORD ROAD

*Status of project: Delayed by four months
*Work began in: February 2004
*Project executor: East Coast Construction Co
*Reasons for delay: Problem in shifting utility lines
*Fresh deadline: December 2005

ANANDRAO CIRCLE

*Status of project: Work under progress
*Work began in : November 2004
*Project executor: Simplex Corporation
*Hassle: Taken up before completion of Nehrunagar box, as requested by the BMP