J.C. Road needs better attention

J.C. Road needs better attention

Frequent traffic jams on this road is causing inconvenience to the public

The Hindu

DESPITE BEING an important stretch in Bangalore's central business district, J.C. Road has not received adequate attention from the traffic police, unlike Mahatma Gandhi Road and Brigade Road.

Frequent traffic jams on J.C. Road, the major road that connects most parts of the South Bangalore with the central and northern areas of the city, is causing inconvenience to the public.

As revealed by an in-house survey conducted by the traffic police a few years ago, the J.C. Road is the only road in the city where the degree of vehicular traffic remains the same throughout the day.

The police attribute various reasons for traffic congestion on J.C. Road, which was made one-way in 1993.

Free flow of traffic is often hindered as a good number of bullock carts and push carts carrying goods from hardware and tyre shops move on this road.

Parking

Though a separate parking lot has been provided on J.C. Road by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), a large number of cars are always seen parked on the roadside itself, adding to the traffic congestion.

The 50-metre road stretch from Puttanna Chetty Town Hall to the Narasimharaja Square has been a major traffic bottleneck. The road is 21 metres wide (9 metres on the Town Hall side and 12 metres on the other side).

The road can hold only five or six lanes of traffic, while the present traffic flow needs about nine or ten lanes.

With the construction of the Sirsi Circle-Town Hall flyover, the traffic flow is unhindered and thus there is a clogging at the end near the Town Hall.

The traffic problem on J.C. Road is "gigantic" as more than one lakh vehicles passes through the Hudson Circle per hour during peak hours, the police say.

According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.N. Reddi, the police have drawn up several measures under Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's 10-point traffic improvement programme to ease congestion on J.C. Road.

The police are considering re-routing vehicles on J.C. Road during peak hours and are also planning to introduce a separate lane for autorickshaws as it will increase the speed level.

There are also plans to ban parking on J.C. Road and shift it to the BMP parking lot, according to Mr. Reddi.

The police would also retune the signals that had gone out of tune with the current movement of vehicles and install vehicle activated signals, which would reduce the waiting time at junctions, he said.

J.C. Road occupies an important place under the new corridor synchronisation scheme, which would be introduced shortly.

Under the corridor synchronisation scheme, the vehicles would get a "green wave" so that they need not stop at several junctions and intersections, he explained.