‘Ashram flyover, a means to squander tax payers’ money’

‘Ashram flyover, a means to squander tax payers’ money’
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Can a flyover be the first answer to traffic congestion, with no thought to other solutions? Can public consultation be an utter no-no?

Residents of Basavanagudi are asking these questions. Basavanagudi residents are calling the Ramakrishna Ashram flyover project an act to squander tax- payers’ money.

At a seminar organised by Basavanagudi Nagarikara Vedike, a former senior transportation engineer of the California transport department pointed out that the flyover project had no planning and was not required at the Ramakrishna junction.

No efforts have been made to ease the traffic in the form of traffic lights, one-ways or lane dividers. Without trying any of these, a decision to construct a flyover has been taken, he said.

“The proposed plan is ill-conceived because it is a one-way flyover and one-way underpass without provision for return traffic,” he said. The narrow service roads adjacent to the flyover or underpass will be overloaded and the width of the pedestrian pavement will be inadequate for the current pedestrian loads.

“The whole project is a reckless waste of money,” he said. He recommended marked lanes and lane dividers, synchronised traffic lights island geometries, widening of roads and good pedestrian pavements.

“Do not waste 10 million dollars on the grade separator when the problem can be solved by spending about 15 thousand dollars on simple measures,” he said.

Public transportation must be strengthened. Metro rail will pay for itself over the years. He advocated congestion pricing where vehicles have to pay to enter the Central Business District.

“It generates finance for maintaining roads and forces non-essential traffic into alternate routes,” he said.

David Knock, retired engineer, Department of Water Resources and Transportation, State of California, suggested a dynamic laning system. The best example of this system can be seen on the Golden Gate Bridge in California.

The bridge has eight lanes, of which six are kept open in the morning for traffic to come into the city, and two to go out. In the evening, six are kept open to go out of the city and two to come in.

“This is done keeping in mind the timings and direction of the traffic. The traffic is heavy in the mornings and evenings since many come to the city for work,” he said.

M S Nanjundaiah, a resident of Basavanagudi and former senior operations advisor to World Bank, pointed out that the Civic Body had not consulted the public.

“When we asked the BMP Commissioner, he said the project was mentioned in the budget. One cannot expect people to figure out a line in the budget. This is not public consultation,” he said.