More castles in the air

Soon, you can zip through Tumkur Road
Elevated Stretch, Six Lanes Planned; Travel Time Will Be Just 15 Minutes
The Times of India

Bangalore: In keeping with Bangalore’s image of embracing anything new, the NHAI has designed the IT city’s first access-controlled road project on the highly accident-prone Tumkur Road.
Tumkur Road’s shocking figures of an accident a day and a death once in five days have spurred the authorities to action. The road has one of the highest traffic density of incoming/outgoing traffic to and from Bangalore — 1.30 lakh passenger carrying units per day — making travel to Nelamangala a matter of an hour from Bangalore city.
The plan to ease this is: A 4.5 km elevated road beginning immediately after the ring road, and beyond that a 15.5 km six-lane road up to Nelamangala that will have walls or railings on both sides to prevent any traffic from crossing the highway. Result: Travel time across the stretch is a mere 15 minutes!
“Access control will reduce accidents on this road. The elevated stretch will also contribute by easing the congestion on this road,’’ NHAI sources told The Times of India.
Designed to be built at a cost of Rs 440 crore, the Bangalore-Nelamangala stretch of Tumkur Road is to match the dream-scape of the Mumbai-Pune, Ahmedabad-Vadodra stretches. There will be no interruptions, with six flyovers and several pedestrian/cattle underpasses built to ferry people across wherever there is need.
The project was planned over an year ago, but ran into trouble because it clashed with the Bangalore Metro. Both projects were eying the same land, the NHAI for expanding the existing road, Metro to put up its rail line and stations. “That issue has been sorted. Both projects are essential, but ours is planned and ready, so we are going ahead. The Metro will acquire land next to ours,’’ sources added.
Bids have already come in from the private sector for the project and are being processed. The project, planned in the public-private partnership (PPP) model, is to be awarded within a month and take off in another six months with a two-year construction period.
The technology used will be similar to the hi-tech elevated road being built on Hosur Road. Like the Hosur Road plan, the Bangalore-Nelamangala stretch will first be widened, traffic diverted on this and the elevated road built along the median with concrete blocks lowered from high beams down to the flyover height of about eight metres from the ground.