Byway to traffic nightmare

Byway to traffic nightmare
Deccan Herald

Heavy vehicles have started plying narrow streets of Langford Town, Richmond Town as part of traffic diversions and residents find pollution levels going up.


The thin demarcation between residential and commercial, private and public, arterial and tertiary roads is increasingly getting blurred in Bangalore.

While Traffic police think that diverting peak hour traffic into residential by-lanes is a good idea, residents of Langford Town disagree.

The 600-odd members of the Citizens’ Welfare Association of Richmond Town and Langford Town have written to the Traffic Department against the recent diversion of traffic from Hosur Road to Eagle Street and Berlie Street, two by-lanes of this purely residential neighbourhood.

The sorry tale of these less-than-14-feet wide by-lanes began when the Traffic police put up a ‘no left’ signal at the Langford Road-Hosur Road junction, thus making commuters turn left at Berlie Street on May 12 (the same was removed last week).

On the other side, a ‘no right’ sign was put up at the same junction, thus restricting vehicle entry to the main Langford Road.

The divider on Hosur Road was removed, thus making Berlie Street a place of cut-through traffic flowing from both sides of Hosur Road.

Residents complain that the quality of their lives have been gravely compromised following these changes.

“Apart from the rise in noise and smoke pollution levels, there has been a spate of accidents on our lanes. As the lanes are narrow and there are no pavements, we find it difficult to get out of our homes. Heavy transport vehicles that ply this road has neither its origin nor destination in this neighbourhood. Then why should we be made to suffer it?” asks Sandhya, a resident. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Rabindranath Tagore has promised the residents that barriers and speed-breakers would be put in place to restrict the flow of traffic.

“This diversion is a short-term arrangement and proper studies will be conducted to look into the feasibility of the plan,” promised Tagore.

Meanwhile, Bangalore City Traffic police intends to decongest roads by introducing public transport in all localities.

“Bus service in all areas, with more pick-up and drop facilities in residential areas, will assist our ‘Safe Way to Schools’ project introduced in all main schools,” explains M A Saleem, DCP (Traffic-East).

MISUSE OF LAND

Residents of Banashankari II Stage are furious with BDA and BMP for ‘recklessly’ converting residential sites into commercial ones. They complained that rampant change of land use for commercial purposes deprives them of their right to live in peace because most people seeking change are misusing the land and creating din in the neighbourhood.



SILENT PROTEST

Hundreds of Bangaloreans, residing in Indiranagar and around Airport Road will stage a silent protest on Tuesday against the delay in the completion of the Airport Road flyover. The protesters will line up on the footpath in front of TGIF restaurant at 8.30 am. The organisers, Public Affairs Centre, say that they will not obstruct the flow of traffic.