BMP begins work on overbridge on Vrishabhavathi Valley

BMP begins work on overbridge on Vrishabhavathi Valley

The Hindu

BANGALORE: If everything goes as planned, in a year's time, the KIMCO Junction on Mysore Road will become signal-free and traffic on the congested stretch between the junction and Gali Anjaneyaswamy Temple could flow smoothly.

Initiating a new but much-talked about concept of roads over drains, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has started work on an overbridge on the Vrishabhavathi Valley behind Karnataka Vidyut Karkhane (KAVIKA), off Mysore Road. While the existing Mysore Road would become one-way from the city towards Mysore between the temple and KIMCO Junction, the new overbridge joining the Mysore Road near Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Satellite Bus Station would take the traffic towards the city from Mysore and Vijaynagar. The overbridge would have two up-ramps — one from the Vijaynagar side just after the railway overbridge on the Mysore railway line and the other from KIMCO Junction side after the Deepanjali Nagar BMTC Bus Depot on Chord Road. While the Vijaynagar up-ramp would come up on a vacant land, the Mysore up-ramp would come up on property acquired by the BMP. The overbridge would come up on the stretch of Vrishabhavathi off Chord Road up to the temple.

At the other end, three down ramps would take vehicles towards the city, KSRTC Bus Terminal and Mysore. The city down ramp joins Mysore Road in front of the KSRTC Bus Terminal. Vehicles from Vijaynagar towards Mysore have to take a "U" turn near the temple to join the Mysore Road, as the stretch of Chord Road between railway overbridge and KIMCO Junction would be made one-way towards Vijaynagar.

The length of the overbridge is 500 metres till the temple and the KSRTC down ramp is also 500 metres long. This down ramp passes over Vrishabhavathi secondary drain and ends behind the KSRTC Bus Terminal. KSRTC has agreed to share the cost of construction because the down ramp of the project will give it exclusive access to the terminal.

BMP officials told The Hindu that the project cost was estimated at Rs. 26 crore. The overbridge, built 5.5 metres above the Vrishabhavathi valley-bed, would have a standard width of 17 metres. The BMP began work on the overbridge three months ago and is hopeful of completing work in the next 12 months.