Budgetary boost for BIA CONNECTIVITY

Budgetary boost for BIA CONNECTIVITY
R Krishnakumar | TNN

Bangalore: The signal-free drive on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) still remains a promise. The BDA, though, has lined up plans to clear one major stretch of the road of bottlenecks. The state’s budgetary allotment of Rs 350 crore for seamless travel on the ORR is expected to add pace to development plans for the stretch between the Central Silk Board (CSB) Junction in Madiwala and the Hebbal flyover.
The development on the 31-km stretch is also tipped to enhance connectivity from the southern parts of Bangalore — including Madiwala, BTM Layout and Hosur Road — to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli.
The stretch has totally 17 junctions, of which improvement work at five — near CSB, Marathahalli, Doddanakunte, Ramamurthynagar and Hebbal — by constructing grade separators has been completed. Tenders have been invited to construct grade separators/underpasses at four other junctions at Nagawara, Banaswadi, Iblur and Agara.
The new budgetary allocation will be put to use for the construction of eight new grade separators on the CSB-Hebbal stretch. The junctions identified for this are at HSR Layout, Bellandur, Devarabesanahalli, Kadubesanahalli, Mahadevapura, Kalyan Nagar, Hennur and Veerannapalya. The estimated cost is between Rs 300 crore and Rs 350 crore.
Tenders soon
BDA commissioner H Siddaiah told TOI that the original plan was to implement the project in phases and work on the Iblur and Agara junctions was initiated in the first phase. “Later, it was decided to take up work on the other eight junctions as well. The idea is to streamline traffic and ensure a continuous flow from CSB Junction to Hebbal,’’ the commissioner said. All eight junctions have been surveyed and the traffic situation analyzed. The BDA expects to float tenders in the next fortnight to a month.
With these underpasses in place, the traffic from areas on the ORR’s flanks is expected to be streamlined and converge at junctions that are becoming choking points now. The junctions at Hennur and Kalyan Nagar have been particularly hit by the surge in traffic. In the next stage, the BDA will take up the peripheral ring road on a budget of Rs 3,000 crore under a build, own and transfer (BOT) basis.
The ORR, developed by BDA to divert truck traffic from the city, has failed in its objective as speeding trucks and private vehicles jostle for space through the entire stretch. The ORR has totally 30 junctions, of which 17 have been identified for development by the BDA and the BBMP.
GREEN SIGNAL
Plan to make ORR signal-free gathers pace Survey of eight identified junctions complete BDA to float tenders on eight grade separators Project planned at a budget of about Rs 300 crore Expected to improve Hosur Road-BIA connectivity