MG Road halts in track

MG Road halts in track
DH News Service,Bangalore:
Well, leave alone MG Road, even the adjoining roads cant be used if you are in a real hurry to reach your destination...

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation’s message board says, “Avoid MG Road as Metro Rail work is on. Use alternative roads.” Well, leave alone MG Road, even the adjoining roads can’t be used if you are in a real hurry to reach your destination.
Of late, slow movement of traffic has become order of the day in the heart of the City, thanks to the ongoing Metro Rail project.
It takes more than 45 minutes to reach Mahatma Gandhi statue from Trinity Circle during off-peak hours.
Similarly, to reach one end of Cubbon Road from the other requires 30 minutes on a normal day. During the peak hours, it takes more than an hour.
The BMRC has taken over some stretches of MG Road (between Brigade Road junction and Mayo Hall junction, Mayo Hall junction and Webb’s petrol bunk junction and Webb’s petrol bunk junction and Kids Kemp) for the Metro Rail project. Nearly half the width of the road (in the middle of the road) has been occupied for the project and barricaded.
What is left for vehicles to pass through near Kids Kemp is just five to six feet of road. When traffic is allowed from Trinity Circle towards MG Road, it resembles a choked funnel.
Rat race
Motorists vie with each other to get through the narrow road. Vehicles move on a single lane, resulting in slow traffic movement. As a cascading effect, traffic on many adjoining roads - Cubbon Road, Residency Road, Old Madras Road, St Mark’s Road and Queen’s Road - are getting clogged.
If it rains or any protest rally is taken out on these roads, traffic comes to a grinding halt.
The problem will only get worse in the coming days as Metro Rail work will be taken up on full scale between Chinnaswamy stadium and Byappanahalli. If the government takes up the proposed high-speed rail works at Police Parade Grounds, the situation will be still worse.
Traffic pile-up
Ditto is the scene on Race Course Road, which is being widened by BBMP. Traffic piles up on the entire stretch of road between Basaveshwara Circle and Race Course entrance during peak hours. Due to movement of loaded tippers, potholes have cropped up on the road. In fact, road-widening work is going on at a very slow pace here.