Is our new Airport Road safe or not?

Is our new Airport Road safe or not?
M N Sreehari


The sudden boom in infrastructure activities, including the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli, flyo ve r s / - underpasses and road-widening programmes, is aimed at fulfilling one agenda — fast connectivity from one point to another. In the present case, it is to the new airport. Though every one of us advocates the necessity of these projects, it is strongly felt that we have neglected the road safety element — road-user’s behaviour, attitude and habitats/locals en route.
Bellary Road is getting prepared to receive a large number of vehicles — more than 30,000-40,000 vehicles daily — in addition to the existing 1.25-1.35 lakh vehicles plying every day, keeping in mind total travel time of almost one hour. One has to understand that travelling within the city consumes more time than commuting between Hebbal flyover and BIA.
Besides developing the Sankey Road corridor, government agencies should seriously consider upgrading all connecting stretches.
It is essential to widen leading roads, as well as restructure and strengthen existing roads from various residential locations to Outer Ring Road, so that one can reach Hebbal flyover in no time.
At the same time, a number of villages and hamlets exist along both sides of Bellary Road. It is common to see pedestrians haphazardly crossing the road and vehicles taking Uturns at a number of openings in the median, which need to be plugged. This requires the following:
Educating locals and bringing awareness about the road and how they should use it.
The entire stretch must have clear service roads for local traffic. The service roads must connect to Bellary Road at a few points only. Barricade Bellary Road for the safety of motorists/pedestrians.
Traffic patrol vehicles must move continuously along the stretch for enforcement of rules and creating awareness. They should respond during the ‘golden hour’ using GPS/GIS.
Create more helpline desks at strategic locations.
Create speed lanes to segregate fast and slow-moving vehicles. Autorickshaws must be allowed to use only service roads; it will be disastrous to allow different kinds of vehicles on the same lane.
Bus bays/dedicated bus corridors, elevated monorail and elevated highspeed rail projects must be taken up immediately to solve the mass transport need along the corridor and reduce usage of private transport.
Our roads are bad and traffic management is very poor, adding to the chaotic situation. All of us think we are traffic experts, but this problem needs to be tackled with engineering and technical skill rather than just road-using experience.
(The writer is chairman, Traffic
Engineers & Safety Trainers)