Trucks to be banned for eight hours in Bangalore city

Trucks to be banned for eight hours in Bangalore city

The Hindu

The decision, aimed at reducing traffic congestion, was taken at a meeting the Chief Minister had with heads of IT firms

# Ten roads to be improved
# More policemen to be deployed for smooth movement of traffic
# Elevated expressway to be built on the BOT system

BANGALORE: To ease traffic congestion in Bangalore, the meeting of IT heads and Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh on Thursday decided to ban movement of trucks for eight hours from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

This was indicated by Chief Mentor of Infosys N.R. Narayana Murthy after the meeting. Besides this, the meeting chalked out plans to improve the conditions on 10 roads on a post-haste basis. Also, additional policemen would be deployed to ensure smooth movement of traffic.

Sheds

Mr. Murthy mentioned that with international airlines such as British Airways, Air France and others starting operations from Bangalore from November, the Government had been asked to provide, to begin with on a temporary basis, sheds to handle immigration formalities.

The Government pointed out that improvement of some of the roads were nearing completion and they include Airport Road-Varthur Road (8.27 km at a cost of Rs. 16 crores); Bannerghatta Road (four km at a cost of Rs. 9 crores); and Sarjapur-Bommasandra Road (4.62 km at a cost of Rs. 9 crores).

Expressway

The National Highways Authority of India would soon be undertaking the construction of an elevated expressway (Hosur road) between Central Silk Board junction and Electronic City (9 km at a cost of Rs. 420 crores). In order to divert traffic during the construction of the expressway, the Government would take up diversion of four roads: Hoskote-Kadugodi-Anekal Road-Varthur Kodi to Anekal via Bommasandra (35.5 km at a cost of Rs. 18.20 crores); improvement of Hoskote-Kadugodi-Anekal Road to Chandapura-Bommasandra road (10.8 km at a cost of Rs. 8.30 crores); improvement of Bannerghatta-Anekal-Bangalore road up to Meenakshi temple (20.3 km at a cost of Rs. 14.50 crores) and National Highway 4 to Bannerghatta road (11 km at a cost of Rs. 9 crores).

Minister for Public Works and Energy H.D. Revanna, told presspersons that tenders for the elevated expressway had been called and that it would be built on the BOT (Build, Own, Transfer) system.

Mr. Revanna said that the Government had identified 38 roads around Bangalore for upgrading at a cost of Rs. 516 crores. The detailed project report had been sent to the Centre for approval. The total length of the 38 roads is about 492 km.