Execute & expedite

Execute & expedite
Rajendra K Misra


As we know, South and South-East Bangalore have experienced tremendous growth due to concentration of IT/ITes industries and related residential communities. These communities are the biggest users of the airport and unfortunately also the farthest from the airport.
This corridor extends from Banashankari, Kankapura Road, J P Nagar, Bannerghatta Road, Hosur Road, Electronic City, HSR Layout, Sarjapura Road, Iblur, Marthahalli, Whitefield, KR Puram and Old Madras Road.
There are two main roads connecting South/ East Bangalore to the airport — the inner route and outer route.
Outer Route
Electronic City - Sarjapura Road - Whitefield - Hoskote- Budhigere/ Sulibele- Devanahalli
State Highway-35, also called HKA Road, starts from Anekal/ Chandapura and goes to Hoskote via Whitefield and Sai Baba Ashram. This further connects to Devanahalli airport via either NH-207 through Sulibelle or via Budhigere Road. This road is ideally suited for people going to airport from Hosur Road, Electronics City, Sarjapura Road, Varthur, Whitefield and Kadugodi areas.
Inner Route
Outer Ring Road (ORR), the only road to reach airport for all of South Bangalore, HSR Layout, Koramangala, Iblur, Marthahalli, KR Puram, Banaswadi, Hennur and Ramamurthy Nagar areas. These are existing routes and suggested improvements can be implemented in next three-six months.
ROUTE 1
Section from Hosur Road to Whitefield and Hoskote (both from Anekal and Chandapura) is already completed by PWD except few small stretches which must to be completed and PWD should certify the completion to a monitoring committee.
The biggest bottleneck is the Railway Over-Bridge (ROB) at Sai Baba Ashram. Work was started almost a year ago but it is going at snail’s pace and Railways are responsible for it. This needs to be expedited. Road from Hoskote to Devanahalli via Budhigere is under development by PWD but works needs to be expedited.
Another road from Hoskote to Devanahalli is NH-207 via Sulibele, which is a wide four-lane road and should be used to divert trucks from Devanahalli going towards Chennai so they do not use Hosur Road and ORR. This road is in need of urgent repair. PWD needs to coordinate with NHAI to strengthen this road.
With these improvements, travel time from Electronic City to airport will be 1.5 hours and from Whitefield it will be 45 minutes.
ROUTE 2
Outer Ring Road (ORR) from Madivala to Hebbal to be converted to Restricted Access - High Speed Corridor with local traffic moving on service roads. ORR is the lifeline of inner city residents of South and East Bangalore extending from Banashankari to KR Puram and Hennur to Hebbal and only access route for new airport.
ORR has six lanes with service road on either side, which are not in use as they have not been paved. Convert ORR from Silk Board Junction to Hebbal to a Restricted Access High Speed Corridor. Local traffic will go on service roads and through traffic moves on central six lanes. Entry-exit points are proposed at important junctions at about 3-5 km distance.
Benefits
Total length of ORR from Madivala to Hebbal is around 30 km and to airport it is around 50 km.
With average speed of 60 kmph, this will reduce travel time from Madivala to Hebbal to 30 mins (from current 1.5 hrs) and to airport to around 60 minutes (from current 2.5 hrs).
Travel from Electronic City, BTM, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Bannerghatta Rd to airport will take around 1.5 hrs and from Whitefield area it will be around 45 minutes.
Implementaion & Monitoring
There should be an an empowered committee which should be headed by chief secretary with finance secretary, PWD secretary and Urban Development Department secretary as its members and must have three members from public/ industry representatives.
(The writer is a transportation
expert and the Lead India
representative from Bangalore)
DETAILED PROPOSAL
1. Ban truck traffic from ORR (Hebbal-Madivala-Banshankari section) and divert it to NH-207 from Devanahalli to Hoskote to Anekal.
2. ORR from Madivala to Hebbal has dual carriage service road all along on both sides. These service roads need to be made operational and be used for local traffic.
3. Six median lanes (three lanes on either side) should be made access controlled using steel girders as on national highways.
4. Of six central lanes (three lanes on either side) — 1 Lane (in either direction) for BMTC buses/ airport shuttle buses.
5. Four central lanes (two lanes on either side) for high speed and through traffic.
6. Entry exit at approximately 3-5 kms intervals with flyovers so that through traffic does not stop.
Entry-exit points at these junctions — Agram, Iblur, Marthahalli, KR Puram, Ramamurthy Nagar & Hennur Road. Already planned and budgeted for by BDA and BBMP, they need to be expedited.
7. All these entry-exit points should have same six lane ROBs/RUBs for through traffic so that there are no bottlenecks
8. Most of these junctions already have sanctioned ROBs/RUBs. Hence project implementation is not difficult.