Death lurks on road to airport

Death lurks on road to airport
DH News Service, Bangalore:
The road to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) - between Hebbal and the airport in particular - has become a "killer" road of late. Not because the road is of poor standards, but it lacks safety measures for pedestrians...


In fact, a fatal hit-and-run case at Betta Halasur sparked off violent protests by locals, jamming the traffic to and from the airport on Tuesday evening. The accident was the second such incident during the week.

Pedestrians have to cross the busy highway, risking their lives at virtually every step. The traffic on the route, according to police, has increased mani-fold.

Moreover, airport-bound vehicles move at a very high speed. Over 500 cases of overspeeding have been registered on this road during the past month. Cars zip at around 100 km/hour speeds though the prescribed limit is 60 km/hour, ACP (North) Traffic Chandrashekar said.

According to traffic expert M N Srihari, highways connecting airports should have footover bridges and underpasses for pedestrians to cross the road. But the road to BIA (NH-7) does not have any. So people cross the road and meet with accidents.

“If steps are not taken to address this problem, such incidents will only increase in coming days and air travelers will have to face utmost inconvenience,” he observed.

ACP Chandrashekar said a proposal to construct pedestrian underpasses and footover bridges on the road has been submitted six months ago. If they are implemented, the accident rate will come down.