All dug up with nowhere to go

All dug up with nowhere to go


Luna Dewan
First Published : 10 Dec 2008 05:02:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 10 Dec 2008 11:00:30 AM IST

BANGALORE: A good night’s sleep, a hassle-free walk on the road, a play area for children are in a nutshell what people staying in residential areas, have a right to expect. But for the residents of Teachers’ Colony under Padmanabhanagar limits in the city these are just distant dreams.

A traffic diversion, meant to facilitate work on the Kadirenahalli underpass, has come as a nightmare for the people. Work on the underpass started in May this year. If the snail’s pace at which work has progressed so far is any indication, the residents of Teacher’s Colony are in for a long haul.

The colony, lies between the Dayanand Sagar College and the Ring Road, and is the gateway to Kumaraswamy Layout, Vasantapura, Bikashipura and Uttarahalli. Buses plying to these areas as well as the ones towards Hosur Road, Bannerghatta, Mysore Road and Kanakapura, now ply through Teacher’s Colony.

All kinds of vehicles - from buses and lorries to light motor vehicles ply through the locality through the day and their constant honking has made daily life miserable for the residents, who are mostly retired teachers. The most affected ones are those residing on the stretch extending from the first cross to seventh cross.

The roads and bylanes of Teacher’s Colony are narrow, measuring just about 15 feet in width. Plying of vehicles like buses and lorries have left hardly any space for pedestrians, especially during the peak hours, i.e., 8.30 am to 10.00 am and 5.30 pm to late night. “It takes more than half an hour for the vehicles to come out of the roads in the area. The gridlock creates a lot of confusion,” said Ruchi, a resident of the Second Cross.

People say that there was no prior intimation of the traffic diversion to the residents of the colony, especially in the context of it being a residential area with such narrow roads. Secondly, the work on the underpass has been dragging on for too long.

Residents feel that some kind of regulation by posting a traffic police in the area could ease things a bit. Residents here do not know whom they should take their case to. Their representations to the Kumaraswamy Layout police station and Thyagarajanagar police station were of no avail. The officers in both the stations said that the matter did not fall under their purview.

B R Gopinath of the Teacher’s Colony Residents Association, said: “The vehicles can be diverted through the stretch between the Dayanand Sagar College and the State Bank, leading to the Kanakapura Road. It will ease the pressure on the residential area.” However, B L Narasarama Rao, executive engineer incharge of the Kadirenahalli underpass work, said: “We have diverted the vehicles coming from Puttenahalli and Bannerghatta through the 14th and 16th cross. This will lessen congestion and disturbance in Teacher’s Colony.”