TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS

The never-ending traffic woes of City could be a thing of the past, if suggestions putforth by a design and construction firm is implemented by the government.

The firm which is also specialised in urban transportation solutions, has given its presentations to civic stakeholders such as BMTC and BMP on revolutionary methods, to facilitate faster movement of public transport buses on elevated expressways through Space Frame technology.

This forms part of a proprietary idea called Multimodal Transport Plan that hopes to practically ease traffic volumes, if implemented.

In an exclusive interview to VViij jaay y TTi imme es s, Srinidhi Anantharaman, Managing Director, Geodesic Techniques, suggested solutions in order to put an end to traffic mess caused on city roads.

Anantharaman says implementation of bad projects that are not workable, has resulted in an endless number of one-ways, construction of fly-overs and grade separators which are not yielding desired results.

Advocating practical short and long term workable solutions, he said the problem of traffic jam that props up whenever a VIP is in town or when protests or dharnas take place, can be solved if helipads are constructed in major destinations they visit, such as HAL, ISRO, Infosys etc and allow foreign dignitaries to be flown directly without affecting the traffic movement.

Geodesic also advocates a new system of Citizen Policing, where motorists observe and note-down vehicle numbers of traffic offenders and pass them on to the traffic control room. This will help ease the burden on police manpower shortage and also increases social responsibility among citizens, he said.

"Funds for implementing such best practices can be availed from either the JNNURM or a PPP basis or even under a BOT (BuildOperate-Transfer) system," he explains.

Geodesic has also presented the idea of elevated roads at the seminar on Road Transport and National Highways organised by FKCCI here.

When contacted, BMTC Managing Director, Upendra Tripathy said the proposal to have elevated roads on storm water drains has already been made.

"It is early to comment on this. The BMP will have to examine the feasibility" he said.

R C Purohit, president, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry says the proposal of Geeodesic is very much feasible.

"We have requested V P Baligar, principle secretary, (Infrastructure) to consider it especially elevated roads for two-wheelers as it is a urgent necessity in-view of their numbers, making commuting for large vehicles difficult".

Prof M N Sreehari, Advisor and Consultant for Traffic and Transportation Engineering for the State government suggests a few solutions to get rid of the blotting traffic problems.

Speaking to VViijjaay y TTiim mees s, Prof Sreehari says, the government should take lessons on planning and execution of a project from neighbouring countries like the UK, USA, Malaysia or even Singapore.

"The government should consider developing new and exclusive suburbs similar to a New Bangalore in the west of the City, in between National Highway 4 and 48, on a 300 to 400 sq km area." This, Prof Sreehari suggests, will pave the way to decongest the city. "What we need is a pro-active government to quickly implement workable ideas" he adds.

"Even in Malaysia, such concepts have been beautifully planned. The city of Putrajaya is the countrys first Intelligent Garden City. It is fully backed by multimedia technologies.

These are perfect examples of how well planned cities can be. Acquiring large chunks of land in the outskirts of the city and shifting people habitating in the already overcrowded City to the outskirts, can provide hopes," he adds He also recommends establishing a single window Land Transport Authority consisting of town and traffic planning professionals. "Singapore has an independent authority that monitors and suggests measures on issues pertaining to traffic." Speaking on the multi-crore metro rail project, he said the project was a colossal waste of public money.

"Just 10 percent of the population in the national capital use the metro. It will be ditto here once the metro becomes operational. It would be better if a mono-rail network supplements the metro, backed by a good bus-feeder system" he adds.

TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS

4 Metro-rail across high density corridors

4 Have mono-rail to supplement metro

4 Elevated roads for buses on storm water drains with stations on patented space plate system

4 Elevated lanes for two-wheelers

4 Citizen enforcement of traffic

4 Auto only lanes with independent signals

4 Make lane discipline mandatory

4 Signal synchronization as per traffic volume and flow

4 Pedestrian controlled crossing

4 Construction of sky-walks across entire stretch of Brigade Road and Commercial Street