Mekhri Circle is a big mess

Mekhri Circle is a big mess
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The very idea of a grade separator at Mekhri Circle was to ensure smooth flow of traffic in all four directions. The traffic did move smoothly for a while, but of late, the traffic police have begun to stop vehicles coming from Hebbal and also from CV Raman Avenue at the intersection in front of the palace gate.

Police reason that traffic needs to be stopped to prevent jams at the Cauvery theatre junction. But road users feel the police action is meaningless, and that it defeats the very purpose of putting up a grade separator at such stupendous cost.

“Till recently, vehicles from Hebbal could proceed freely towards the BDA through the grade separator. In the same way, vehicles from Yeshwanthpura side could move towards the BDA, passing through Mekhri Circle.

“But traffic policemen manning the point where the two roads meet - the narrow road originating from Mekhri Circle towards BDA and the Hebbal-BDA road on the grade-separator - are stopping traffic towards Vidhana Soudha. This is causing a great deal of inconvenience,” a senior civil servant, who uses the road regularly, said.

Vehicles are stopped till the traffic at the Cauvery theatre junction clears up. “The exercise, in no way, helps traffic at the Cauvery theatre junction and only delays onward movement. The gains realised out of the grade-separator seem to have been lost,” he said.

According to another regular user of the road, the only way to manage the density of traffic is to widen it by acquiring some land out of palace grounds before any constructions come up there.“The problem is compounded with new gates into Palace Grounds surfacing at short intervals. There is one just at the point where roads from the grade-separator emerge,” he said.