Hosur Road to breathe easy

Hosur Road to breathe easy
Decongestion Plan: Parking To Be Banned 50 Mts From Junction
The Times of India

Bangalore: The IT city’s main infoway — Hosur Road — is set for an infrastructure blitz. Taking cognisance of the loud demands by the IT brigade, the Traffic Task Force has decided to cater to the IT companies on a “high priority basis’’.

The numero uno decongestion plan — parking of vehicles to be prohibited for 50 mts from the junction on the main road, cross roads and service roads. This includes prohibition on parking of trucks, tempos and vans on service roads along the stretch of Hosur Road. Parking space would be provided at identified locations.

To address the woes of the estimated 16,000 professionals at work along Hosur Road to Electronic City, the logistics of the Hosur Road Corridor Improvement Project is in place. Here’s the ambitious clincher — all the plans and solutions to decongest and step up Hosur Road — are supposed to be implemented by January 1, 2006.

One of the tech-heavy plans for the stretch on National Highway 7, buzzing with techies, is the corridor traffic control system. With this, synchronisation of signals would be carried out using vehicle-accentuated loops and the system will be monitored by professionals through a control room. The central monitoring and control system would enable central adjustment of traffic signal timings to suit the traffic conditions and hence minimise delays to motorists.

Besides, for the first time in the city, the Hosur Road stretch will house Variable Messaging System and Enforcement Cameras, a la CCTV. The measures are significant in the light of this: In 2001, Hosur Road saw 359 accidents, 410 in 2002 and 475 in 2003.

Explains a member of the Traffic Task Force: “Out plans are feasible, proper enforcement is necessary. For once, there has to be co-ordination between different stake-holders.’’ He further explains that a major hurdle is removal of encroachments rampant on drains; the task is in PWD’s jurisdiction.

For the PWD, a Herculean task is resurfacing and asphalting of the existing road along Naganathpura jail — Sarjapur Road, Electronics City — Bettadasapura — Basavanapura — Bannerghatta Road. There is yet another facet to roads — National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken up the conversion of Hosur Road into six lanes, while a private Hyderabad-based consortium is building a 9-km road on stilts.

For perspective, deal with these statistics: Electronics City, which has a four-lane express highway on 332 acres land, houses about 150 IT and related companies. The total built-up area is 1.15 million sq ft.

Road to progress
Hosur Road, main infoway between Bangalore and Electronic City 6-laning by NHAI Variable Messaging System and Enforcement Cameras Parking of vehicles to be prohibited for 50 mts from the junction