Peripheral road of BMIC to be ready by July next year

Peripheral road of BMIC to be ready by July next year

The Hindu

Motorists may have to pay Re. 1 as toll for every kilometre


BANGALORE: After years of legal wrangles, clearance delays and much else, the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) Project will finally take off in July next year.

The first phase, comprising the 41-km southern section of the peripheral road connecting Tumkur Road and Hosur Road, the nine-kilometre link road from Bangalore-Mysore Expressway to Mysore Road and the elevated three-kilometre expressway from link road to downtown Bangalore, will be thrown open to traffic.

Being developed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICE), the peripheral road will essentially be grade-separated, access-controlled four and six-lane toll roads, that never intersect with any cross road. The road will be fenced all along, with access limited only through the 16 interchanges.

To get onto the tolled section of the road, motorists will have to pay about a rupee for every kilometre. But surveys indicate that the advantages of using the road outweigh the costs. For instance, the peripheral road stretch connecting Bannerghatta Road with Hosur Road is expected to vastly reduce the commuting distance and time, particularly for people on Bannerghatta Road bound for Electronics City.

A study has revealed that not less than 40,000 vehicles ply on the Bannerghatta Road stretch between Meenakshi Temple and Indian Institute of Management. These vehicles are mostly of people employed in software and BPO firms based in Electronics City.

Now, if these vehicles were to take the existing route, passing through IIMB, Jayadeva Flyover, down BTM Layout and the Silk Board flyover, the travelling distance would be about 12 km one way. The travel time will be an average of 70 minutes. The completed NICE Peripheral road is likely to cut the distance to 8.7 km.

Here's how the Peripheral Ring Road stretch from Bannerghatta Road to Kanakpura road changes the traffic dynamics: The existing route is 17.8 km long, with 18 cross roads/junctions and three traffic signals. Taking the peripheral road, the distance is likely to be reduced to 6.7 km with no junctions or signals in between.

The difference that the peripheral road can make to travel is much more pronounced on its stretch from Kanakapura Road to Mysore Road. Here, the travel time of 70 minutes on the existing route is likely to be reduced to five minutes.

There are 23 junctions and eight traffic signals on the existing route and none on the proposed road, which is 8.2 km compared to the 23.2 km on the present route.

From Mysore Road to Magadi Road, the existing travel distance of 16.7 km is likely to be brought down to 9.5 km on the peripheral road and the travel time is likely to be reduced from 55 to six minutes.

On the new road's stretch from Magadi Road to Tumkur Road, the commuting time is only 4.5 minutes, down from 65 minutes on the existing route. Also avoided are 15 junctions and four traffic signals.