Traffic jams have become common

Traffic jams have become common

The Hindu

The situation is worse at flyover construction sites on Airport Road and at Ananda Rao Circle


BANGALORE: More flyovers and underpasses may be in the offing, but traffic jams have become a way of life for Bangaloreans. Moving by the metre or less, at a time. At flyover construction sites on Airport Road and at Ananda Rao Circle, the situation is even worse with parts of the roads no longer paved and deviations dotted with muddy trenches and potholes.

The large flyover at Madiwala has not made driving on Hosur Road easier; there are hold-ups on both sides because of the sheer volume of traffic and more vehicles coming from the service roads leading to growing suburbs such as Bommanahalli.

The new shopping malls that have come up along Commissariat Road and Magarath Road have added to traffic chaos on those roads and nearby roads, partly because of one-way regulations.

There is also steady traffic of shoppers going and returning from two malls on the Richmond Road-Victoria Road junction.

According to a senior police officer in charge of traffic "the BMP must consult us before sanctioning any large commercial complexes ... traffic has to be a component of commercial development but little thought is given to that aspect."

"The promoter of any large commercial or residential development should take the responsibility to see that traffic chaos is avoided but few bother to do so. Shopping complexes can even have their own underpasses directly leading in and out of their basement or multilevel parking so that other traffic is not held up. Proper entry and exit points must be planned and the cost involved can easily be recovered," says town planning and urban development expert B.V. Anand. Most shopping complexes do charge for parking.

The malls which keep a record of the number of vehicles using their parking lots have figures that are revealing enough. Bangalore Central near Mayo Hall has parking space for 1,000 cars and 250 two-wheelers.

Garuda Mall now accommodates 1,000 cars and 2,000 two-wheelers and is adding more parking space. The Forum Mall on Hosur Road often has 4,000 cars on its multilevel parking space on weekends. All these vehicles eventually come out on to the roads.