Taxpayers’ money goes down the drain

Taxpayers’ money goes down the drain
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Basavangudi flyover is clearly a failure. And the residents’ fears have come true.

It’s a month since the flyover at National College Circle was thrown open, and it is high time the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) reviewed whether the purpose of construction is being served.

The flyover project had come under flak from prominent citizens when it was taken up in September ‘03, and their fears have now come true.

The claim was that the fly-over would facilitate smooth movement of traffic on KR Road. How the expert engineers arrived at such a conclusion no one knows.

They would have been right if four roads made up the junction. The junction also leads to the prominent A N Krishna Rao Road connecting V V Puram and JC Road with Basavanagudi.

It also houses the famous Jain College. The authorities seem to have realised the importance of A N Krishna Rao Road only after blowing up about Rs 8 crore of taxpayers’ money on the flyover and throwing it open for public use.

It is now clear that a bulk of traffic coming from the southern parts of Bangalore on K R Road took to A N Krishna Rao Road at the National College junction. This was grossly overlooked when the project was designed, and hence the latest ‘incision’ on K R Road at the junction point below the fly-over.

While this incision has helped the traffic from the K R Road to proceed to Krishna Rao Road, those using North Road have to navigate through a narrow stretch in front of National College to reach the same Krishna Rao Road.

The experiment shows that the BCC engineers have not learnt any lessons from the Town Hall-Sirsi Circle flyover project, which is replete with flaws. At Basavanagudi, very few vehicles use the flyover even during peak hours.

It looks like a classic case of taxpayers’ money being splurged with no apparent benefit for road users.