The road to perdition

The road to perdition
With the open- ing of BIA, the 29-km stretch between Hebbal flyover and Devanahalli has become a death trap with its killer junctions, says Amit. S. Upadhye
Bengaluru


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As many as 29 people died in accidents on the 29-km stretch between the Hebbal flyover and Devanahalli in 2007. Of them, 40 per cent were pedestrians.

This year the death toll on the same stretch has already touched 27. The latest victim was 35-year-old Aslam, who was killed on Tuesday night near the Hebbal flyover in a hit-and-run accident.

More pedestrians have been dying on this road since the new international airport opened at Devanahalli, which has led to a sharp increase in the traffic here.

The busy Bellary road receives traffic from a number of residential layouts,villages, and hamlets that exist alongside it.

People from these areas often have a tough time crossing the road as vehicles zoom past or attempt to take a U-turn at the several gaps in the median.

“There are over 25 intersections in the Hebbal flyover which have become ‘black spots’ (killer junctions) for pedestrians. They need to be given more time to cross the road from the present 30 seconds allotted,” said a traffic planner.

The police say the problems faced by the pedestrians on the stretch have been brought to the notice of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and traffic engineers from various departments in the hope that safe crossing points will be created for them.

But the BBMP is in a dilemma on how to go about creating a safe passage for pedestrians on the Bellary Road.

“We can erect sky-walks, but the government has proposed a high-speed elevated rail link here. An underground subway may not work either,”said a senior BBMP official.

Traffic engineers from the Traffic Engineering and Safety Trainers (TEST), Bengaluru have submitted recommendations for improving pedestrian safety standards on the Bellary Road up to the new international airport.

The recommendations include educating the locals about road safety standards, appropriately barricading the road and creating help desks at strategic locations.

Traffic police officers of the west division say their main worry is to segregate the slow moving traffic from the vehicles speeding to the airport.

“Since most of the service roads are under utilised, many vehicles merge with the main traffic on the highway creating congestion.

We have been evicting temporary encroachments from the service roads and towing away vehicles which are parked on service roads,” the officers said.

people speak ‘ There are no cops to man vehicles that come out of the GKVK on the highway. Pedestrians have no option but to hop across the busy road.

Vivek Naik, a student of University of Agricultural Sciences.

Taxis plying between the BIA and city tend to over speed. If there’s repair wo- rk or a downpour, traffic on Bellary Road goes out of gear.

Sudha K., a resident of Sahakar Nagar on Bellary Road.

Peak hour traffic on Bellary Road is chaotic.

Pedestrians are given very little time to ‘ cross the road as vehicles jump signals frequently.

Maheshwar S., a shopkeeper on Bellary Road.

way out ? There are 28 intersections on NH-7 between the Hebbal Flyover and the International Airport in Devanahalli. Some of them must be blocked and people should be encouraged to utilise service roads effectively.

? The BBMP could build sky-walks. But this cannot be done since the government has proposed an elevated high-speed rail link between the city and the airport. So going underground may be the only solution to cut down pedestrian fatalities on Bellary Road.

Subways could be built without hindering the traffic on the road above as has been done near the IISc campus.