High Speed Rail Link to airport likely to stall road development

High Speed Rail Link to airport likely to stall road development

Krishnaprasad

Flyovers, elevated road cannot be built on the stretch

The rail link will only benefit those travelling to the airport

DMRCL has raised objection to a plan to build an elevated road corridor along the stretch

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

PACKED: The busy Bellary Road may not see any future development.

Bangalore: The proposed High Speed Rail Link (HSRL) from Bangalore city to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli is likely to become a hurdle for all future plans to develop the Sankey Road-Bellary Road stretch, which is the main entry and exit point to the fast growing northern parts of the city.

This means there will be no flyovers, underpasses, elevated road corridor or tunnel road corridor on this stretch irrespective of the increase in the density of traffic in future.

The result is likely to be never-ending traffic snarls for those using this stretch of road. The rail link will only benefit those travelling to the airport.

It appears that such a situation is a possibility as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRCL), which has been entrusted with the task of executing the HSRL, has raised its objection to a proposal to build an elevated road corridor along the stretch.
‘Awkward’

Interestingly, sources said DMRCL has, in a recent meeting on various issues related to airport connectivity, termed as “awkward” the proposal of having an elevated road corridor till Hebbal flyover along with HSRL.

The Government was examining a proposal to build an elevated road corridor between Minsk Square and Hebbal flyover as a long-term traffic management plan keeping in mind the fast developing northern parts of the city.

However, the remark from DMRCL has raised many eyebrows among the State officials as HSRL appears to be emerging as an obstruction to other development works.

“HSRL is meant for only for use of those travelling to the airport and not for others. Why should other road development works suffer just for this purpose?” asked an official, who is involved in the upgradation of city’s road projects.

Meanwhile, some traffic engineering experts associated with the Government pointed out that only 20 to 25 per cent of vehicles plying on this stretch are bound for the airport.

That means 80 per cent of the vehicles plying on this stretch continue to use this road irrespective of the airport and hence priority should be to help the general road users.

“Soon the stretch between Hebbal flyover and Mehkri Circle will be widened and it would be the widest road corridor inside the city having six lanes. HSRL will cut into at least one to two lanes of this stretch thus resulting in a bottleneck,” a traffic engineering expert said.

“Construction of a tunnel or an elevated road corridor cannot be taken up after HSRL,” it was pointed out.

Some engineers working with the Public Works Department, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) also agree with this aspect while pointing out that spending over Rs. 3,000 crore just to provide rail link exclusively to the airport will not be a wise decision.

Instead, it should be converted into a mass rail system for the benefit of the people and only then can the pressure on the road be reduced.