MEga jam in the making

Be warned! It may be like rolling over a mile long road full of thorns before reaching the promised velvet bed.

The Bangalore Metro Rail project scheduled to begin in the first week of February with the construction of viaducts is likely to put life completely out of gear in Bangalore despite assurances by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) that people would not be inconvenienced.

The reality is there for all to see through the effect the construction of Malleswaram Circle underpass has had on the traffic around the area.

While work on a single underpass project is having a ripple effect on the traffic congestion that expands as far as Rajajinagar and beyond, one can imagine what impact a much larger project like the metro rail would have across the City.

The Malleswaram project is expected to be completed in a year, and it has led to various traffic diversions causing chaos on the roads.

With the Metro rail project likely to see completion in five years, it would be the commuters who would bear the brunt due to traffic congestion.

Presently, the BMRC is in the final stages of concluding the soil test, and even the metal partitions put temporarily to conduct the tests are a cause for traffic chaos.

Experts say traffic is likely to worsen in the days to come. And, the City that is already facing immense vehicular congestion is not in a position to take such mega constructions.

"The City roads are clogged with 28.5 lakh vehicles and at least about a thousand more are added everyday. It will get worse," says M N Sreehari, President, Traffic Education and Safety Training (TEST) and Advisor to the State Government told VViij ja ayy TTiim mees s. The worst affected will be the Majestic area connecting the Railway station which has a traffic density of 11,000 passenger cars per hour with about 10 percent being added every year.

"This place is already clogged with traffic trouble, the construction will slow down the traffic completely and sad part is the road users dissatisfaction will increase till the project is complete," he said.

"The first phase of work likely to be complete by 2012 will bring in several woes as the fuel consumption is bound to increase. This in turn will increase vehicular pollution, while the construction site dust will only add to it," he says.

Moreover, with alignment of Metro rail not fixed in some areas, experts feel the ongoing projects to ease traffic congestion like the underpasses at Magadi Road-West of Chord Road junction and Malleswaram Circle, besides the proposed underpass at Yeshwanthpur, are also likely to be delayed.


BMRC SPEAK:

V Madhu, Managing Director, BMRCL, says they would ures to reduce traffic woes and metro rail would u technologies. The officials are scheduled to meet ing use of appropriate technologies in constructio while project is on.

MEASURES TO EASE TRAFFIC:

4 Putting thick metal sheets and boards for vehicles while construction of via-ducts and piers is on un

4 Road diversions.

4 Ground penetrating radars (only being considered)

PENDING ISSUES

4 The decision on route alignment on CMH Road / Old Road,

4 Announcing tenders

4 Land acquisition

4 Rehabilitation proposals for compensation to prope

4 A total of 192 columns planned

4 One corridor connecting Yeshwanthpur and RV Road

4 Another corridor connecting Mysore Road and Byapannahalli

4 Six underground stations at City Railway Station, Majestic, Central College, Vidhana Soudha, Chickpet and City Market, areas with heavy traffic and two densely populated.

4 Of 33 kms in this phase, 6.76 kms to be underground.

4 Each underground station planned to be 222 metres long, 25 metres wide and 18 to 25 metres deep.

4 Will involve 14,000 truck loads of excavated soil and rock per underground station.

4 Constructing pillars for elevated portions to occupy only nine metres of the road

4 Entire road to be covered where metro goes underneath