PRR will take pressure off city roads

PRR will take pressure off city roads
The planned PRR will decrease pressure on many of the city’s arterial roads with the efficient connectivity it creates. Sai Prasanna reports


With Phase-I of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) being taken up by the Bangalore Development Authority, connectivity will open up for villages and layouts nearby and to various parts of the city. Phase I will provide greater connectivity from Tumkur Road in the north to Hosur Road in the south. It has been proposed to have interchanges at 10 junctions where the four National Highways and five State Highways connect to the PRR. They will be made signal-free for seamless connectivity. The design speed of the loops and ramps at the interchanges will be 40 kmph and toll plazas will be provided at entry and exit ramps.
Railway over-bridges (ROBs) will also be provided at Hubli, Chikkaballapur, Doddaballapur, Chennai, and Salem railways line crossings intersecting the PRR. This will also help in a smooth flow of traffic without interruptions. As of now, a vertical clearance of 6.5 metres has been given for the Salem line crossing and 8.14 metres for the other crossings.
This stretch will also to cater to the traffic generated by the four residential layouts that have been proposed by the BDA around Phase I of the PRR. Around two lakh vehicles per day are expected to use this road daily once these layouts are formed.
About 1,835 acres will be acquired for Phase I, for which the cost will come to about Rs 500 crores.
Connectivity
The PRR was proposed to accommodate increasing traffic that could not be handled effectively by the Outer Ring Road (ORR), and also to increase connectivity to new areas developing around the city. This road will lessen traffic congestion in the city by diverting this additional traffic directly to these areas and also providing links to major State and National Highways. Due to this, commercial traffic like long distance trucks and goods carriers travelling outside the city will now use this road, considerably reducing the number of vehicles plying on the ORR. Also, traffic travelling to and from the city will use this road.
With the development of the four layouts, and villages and residential areas on either side of the PRR, the loops at the various interchanges will facilitate easy movement of local traffic. Also, the vehicular underpasses at every two km and pedestrian underpasses at every one km intervals will help the movement of vehicles as well as pedestrians.
HIGHWAYS LINKED TO PRR
NORTH

• Hesaraghatta Road (SH)

• Doddaballapur Road (SH)

• Bellary Road (NH 7)
EAST

• Hennur Road (SH)

• Old Madras Road (NH 4)

• Whitefield Road (SH)
SOUTH

• Sarjapur Road (SH)
BDA LAYOUTS IN THE VICINITY

• Dr K Shivarama Karanth Layout - between Doddaballapur Road and Hesaraghatta Road - 3,546 acres

• D Devaraj Urs Layout - between Airport Road and Varthur village - 1,976 acres

• S Nijalingappa Layout - between Varthur Village and Sarjapur Road - 2,806 acres

• K C Reddy Layout - between Hosur Road and Sarjapur Road - 2,134 acres

• Kempegowda Layout - between Magadi Road and Mysore Road - 4,814 acres. This layout will come up around the stretch being developed in the second phase.