Peace lost forever on Suranjan Das Road

Peace lost forever on Suranjan Das Road

The Hindu

Walkers' lane turns into a nightmare for motorists


BANGALORE: Peace is lost forever on Suranjan Das Road, connecting the busy Old Madras Road with the busier Airport Road. The road, which till a few years ago resembled a walkers' lane, is today in the midst of a chaotic traffic transition. For the road-user, caught in peak-hour traffic, driving couldn't have become worse.

Hectic planning is now on to ease the pressure. On the cards is a proposal to make the road four-lane between the ADA Gate and the BEML main gate by taking a portion of the land close to the railway track. Besides, the Bagmane Park road is proposed to be attached to the S. Das Road through signalisation.

But these measures, feel road-users, will still not decongest the road's junctions with the Jeevan Bima Nagar Main Road and the New Thippasandra Main Road, where the traffic personnel on duty appear grossly inadequate to control the traffic, mounting by the minute. The endless stream of buses, cars, vans and two-wheelers converge at these junctions, choking the narrow road, particularly when there is VVIP movement on Airport Road.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East), M.A. Saleem, agrees that partial widening of the road will not help. "The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) should negotiate with HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) to get some land on either side to widen the entire road," he says. Suranjan Das Road was never designed to take this heavy load. Way back in the 1940s, this road was built by the HAL to connect its Aero Engine division with the main factory on Airport Road. For over five decades, this road remained just a connecting link, calm and pollution-free, where people jogged in peace.

Airport Road's unbridled congestion meant the vehicles would hunt for alternative routes. Suranjan Das Road was the natural choice. With traffic jams worsening on Airport Road, vehicles turned right into the Suranjan Das Road to take a left at Bima Nagar Main Road and proceed further to the heart of the city.

The morning traffic is mainly of office-goers from Marathahalli, Jyothinagar, Annasandrapalya, L.B. Shastri Nagar, Rameshnagar and other K.R. Puram CMC areas, all grounds for mushrooming apartments. A quick getaway to Cambridge Road in Ulsoor and Mahatma Gandhi Road is their usual route. But the first traffic block on Suranjan Das road ruins their day. And when the HAL and BEML factory buses start streaming after 3 p.m., life gets even tougher.

At Suranjan Das Road's junction with the Bima Nagar Main Road, constable Muniraju battles in vain to control traffic. "Even with four constables and a sub-inspector, it is extremely difficult to manage the vehicles on this narrow road," his resigned look says it all. Managing the traffic to help scores of government school children cross the road is one big struggle for the policemen on duty.