‘Magic box’ concept adopted to build culvert

‘Magic box’ concept adopted to build culvert

Special Correspondent

Work has been taken up at the Brigade Road-Residency Road junction

It is expected to be completed by Monday morning

The cost will come to Rs. 46 lakh

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Chaotic: Work on repairing the culvert at Brigade Road-Residency Road junction resulted in traffic jams on Saturday.

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) which revolutionised the construction of underpasses through the “magic box”, has now put to use this concept in the construction of culverts and slab drains.

BBMP began constructing the culvert on Saturday at the Brigade Road-Residency Road junction, which posed a challenge to motorists when it rained.

The collapsed slabs of the culvert used to cause heavy waterlogging there.

“Had we taken up the repair work in the conventional method, it would have taken at least one month for completion and the cost would have been nearly Rs. 3 crore,” BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya told The Hindu.

He said the BBMP was using the magic box concept in culvert construction for the first time. Under this method, only a couple of days were required to complete the work and the cost was Rs. 46 lakh, he added. Mr. Subramanya said: “BBMP engineers have gone in for this new application to fix the problem.Three magic box elements will be used.” Earth excavation began on Saturday and the BBMP is hopeful of completing the work by Monday morning.

The commissioner was confident that there would be no more waterlogging at the junction. As the boxes are big, sufficient space would be available for routine maintenance, he added. Mr. Subramanya said the success of this experiment would enable the BBMP to take up such work at other places in the city.
Traffic jams

Meanwhile, the repair work threw traffic out of gear in the central parts of Bangalore.

The obstruction here had a cascading effect on traffic movement on many other roads, including St. Mark’s Road, Brigade Road, Richmond Road, Raja Ram Mohun Roy Road, M.G. Road, Kamaraj Road, Cubbon Road, Raj Bhavan Road, Queen’s Road, Kasturba Road and adjoining areas.
Diverted

Vehicles on Residency Road were diverted to a crossroad that joins Brigade Road ahead of this junction and were allowed either to move on Residency Road by taking a left turn or through Magrath Road, said Geetha Kulkarni, police inspector, Ashoknagar Traffic Police Station.

As a few slabs of the old culvert reportedly collapsed on Friday night, the BBMP had to take up emergency repairs and the traffic police did not have advance information for traffic diversion.