Magadi Road-Chord Road junction underpass planned

Magadi Road-Chord Road junction underpass planned
The BDA has planned this project to ease the traffic congestion here
The Times of India

Some cheer for the commuters hailing from the south-east of the city. A major bottleneck at the Magadi Road-Chord Road junction (Vijaynagar entrance) will soon give way to a smooth passover, for the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has passed a resolution to put up an underpass at this junction at an estimated cost of Rs 22.50 crores.

The BDA Commissioner M N Vidyashankar says, "the proposal for a grade separator here was long-pending. We have invited tenders for this project and we will finalise the tenders in 90 days. After the technical and financial bids are over we will start work and finish it in 13 months".

He added that a detailed project report carried out by the BDA revealed that the traffic density here is 10,000 PCU/hr which necessitates an immediate grade separator. This junction connects four major roads out of which one is a national highway (NH 4) and the other two are state highways (Mysore Road and Magadi Road) making it over-crowded throughout the day. The road space here is very less and traffic stoppage time is very high leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic during peak hours. On the design, he says, "the fourlane, two-way divided underpass will be between Prasanna Theatre and Magadi Road, and pass-over will be a twoway undivided road towards West of Chord Road with a free right to Prasanna Theatre Road from Vijaynagar. We will provide a basic design frame to the contractor but a detailed project design will be finalised once the successful bidder is awarded work".

Other projects

It may be noted here that the BDA is also in charge of three other flyovers that are progressing towards finish, Ananda Rao Circle, Jayadeva Circle and Airport Road. The BDA Commissioner giving details on the status of the work said, works on these flyovers are being carried out 24 hours, with issues related to cost escalation with UP State Bridge Corporation being resolved.

While the Ananda Rao Circle flyover being constructed at a contract value of Rs 27.60 crores is scheduled to be completed in another four months, work on the other two are going on at high speed. The Commissioner said, the revised deadline for the Rs 17.56 crores Jayadeva Circle grade separator is July 2006 but BDA will finish the project by April 2006. In the case of Airport Road-IRR flyover which is taken up at a cost of Rs 26.69 crores, the four loops of the interchange will be ready by July 2006 and the main flyover will be completed by August 2006.