Work on widening of Chowdiah Road begins

Work on widening of Chowdiah Road begins

S. Rajendran

BBMP sets March 28 deadline for completion of works

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

Brisk pace: Work on widening of T. Chowdiah Road in Bangalore in progress on Monday.

Bangalore: It is good news for motorists using the T. Chowdiah Road, popularly known as Sankey Road. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has commenced work on widening the road to a six-lane carriageway from the existing four-lane. Sankey Road is the main link to the northern parts of Bangalore apart from the NH-4 (Pune highway) and NH-7 (to Hyderabad).

Construction of three underpasses in a stretch of about 200 metres will form part of the first phase of the road widening work leading up to the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli. The underpasses will facilitate a two-way movement of traffic on Cunningham Road. With the completion of the underpasses, vehicles from the Kumarakrupa Road moving towards High Grounds will have a free right turn and, similarly, vehicles moving from Bellary Road towards Kumarakrupa Road will have a free right turn. The offsite work on casting the concrete slabs for the underpasses has commenced.

All three underpasses are primarily aimed at ensuring a free flow of traffic which would have a direct effect at easing the traffic congestion along the Sankey Road stretch between the Windsor Manor underbridge and at the Cunningham Road-Sankey Road intersection. Estimated to cost about Rs 4.5 crore, the BBMP has acquired a strip of about five metres land on both sides of Sankey Road. The golf course will shrink by 2.5 metres to seven metres on the Sankey Road stretch and same will be the case with the Ministers’ quarters.

Commissioner of BBMP S. Subramanya told The Hindu here on Monday that the BBMP would work to a strict schedule to ensure a smooth flow of traffic up to the international airport.

“We will do our best to ensure a hassle-free movement of traffic,” he said. With the international airport set for inauguration in the last week of March, the BBMP has also set March 28 as the deadline for the completion of the road widening works between Ballabrooie and the Hebbal flyover (jurisdiction of the BBMP).