Airport Rd flyover hangs in mid-air

Airport Rd flyover hangs in mid-air
WORK BEGAN IN 2003 CROSSED 2004 DEADLINE EXPECTED TO BE OVER BY JUNE NOW
The Times of India


Sunidhi Chauhan may have waited patiently while being stuck in the Airport Road traffic jam during her visit to the city last week, barely making it in time to the venue for a performance. But everyone else is not as patient and wondering when the flyover, that seems forever in the making, will be completed.

The IT sector, which has over 1,600 IT companies concentrated in Whitefield, Electronic City, Airport Road, Koramangala and Indiranagar, has clients coming in from all over the world. So does the mushrooming event management sector. Representatives from these sectors feel Bangalore is fast losing out on the infrastructure front.

“Usually guests or clients visiting the city are on a tight schedule and arrive in the city only on the day of the meeting or event and cannot afford to be stuck on Airport Road in bumper-to-bumper traffic for two long hours,’’ said event manager Oum Pradutt.

Airport Road handles 90,000 passengers per car unit every day in addition to about 4,800 vehicles of passengers of the 110 domestic and six international flights joining in peakhour gridlocks.

“Due to this, organising an event with more than 1,000 invitees and making sure the function starts on time drives us mad,’’ said Pradutt. Missing flights due to traffic jams is something Bangaloreans are getting used to. “My friends and I have missed flights and hence important business meetings despite planning to reach the airport two hours in advance,’’ he added.

MphasiS MD and Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ananth Koppar said, “It was one of the reasons why we set up our call centres in Mangalore and also why we have offices spread all across the city for easy access to employees, including the 25% who come from that area.’’

Smaller companies seem to bear the brunt of poor infrastructure. Verismo Net managing director Satish Mugahabali said, “The business of companies like Infosys and Wipro may not get affected if four of their foreign clients get stuck in traffic. But for companies like ours, which has 100 employees, the four clients coming from abroad, complaining about traffic jams and asking us to look for a better location, are forcing us to move out of the city.’’

Some residents of the area adjoining Airport Road are even taking the drastic step of moving out. Pratap Rai, a resident of Natasha Golf View Apartment, did just that a few months ago. “I was tired of waiting for the flyover to be completed and shifted to Indiranagar 7th Main. Though it has been costlier for me, at least it gives me more peace of mind,’’ he said.

B N S Reddy of Indiranagar said, “Travelling from Indiranagar to Koramangala or MG Road, which should be a 15-minute drive, takes more than one harrowing hour now due to the traffic jam.”

Though the police have taken several initiatives, Traffic DCP (East) M A Saleem concedes that traffic does seem to be out of control. By widening Airport Road by 12 feet, closing the medians at Kodihalli and Murugeshpalya and combining two bus-stops, the police have tried their best to smoothen the traffic flow.

The BDA proposed the 435-metre flyover connecting Koramangala to Airport, and the project, undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation (UPSBC) in February 2003, is now way past the original deadline of April 30, 2004. “But this time there won’t be any delays and while the flyover will be completed by June 30, loops will be open to the public in August. Work is going on in full swing,’’ assured a BDA official.

WHY THE DELAY?
The project work which started on Feb. 1, 2003 almost stalled after a year of commencement as the BDA filed a petition in the High Court to terminate the contract due to slow progress. The BDA lost the case and was asked to settle the matter in the interest of the work.

On March 2005, the UPSBC, the project contractor, gave a list of 26 reasons to the BDA due to which the project cost went up from Rs 2,650 crore to Rs 3,599.04 crore.

The rise in the cost of cement and steel were cited as prime reasons for this hike.

THE COST FACTOR: CEMENT, STEEL PRICES UP
With the construction and general economic boom in India and the sharp increase in prices of cement and steel, there has been a steep cost escalation in infrastructure projects such as Bangalore’s Airport Road flyover.

The past few months alone have seen prices of both these critical inputs touch new highs. Sources say cement prices (per bag) have gone up by Rs 50-55 in just one month. That translates to roughly an increase of Rs 25-30 per sq ft.

B M Jayeshankar, president of Karnataka Ownership Apartments Promoters’ Association (KOAPA), says steel prices too have increased by as much as Rs 3,000 per metric tonne in the past one month.
March-June is the peak season for the construction industry, and typically, supply falls short of demand during this period, say cement dealers.

Cement users have charged manufacturers with cartelising to artificially increase prices. But manufacturers insist that is not so. An official at cement company ACC says the hike has been the result of excess demand, particularly in Bangalore. “In Bangalore, the shortage of cement supply is around 20%,” he said.