DIVERT before you dig

DIVERT before you dig

ABIDe Resists Tunnel Vision, Looks At Projects In Entirety

Aarthi R | TNN


Bangalore: Development projects are important to the city, but not at the cost of public inconvenience. The new vision statement on road, traffic management and transportation, brought out by the Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDe) makes a few basics very clear. One of them is to divert essential services comfortably before you even dig.
This might come as some relief for a city that has always looked at development otherwise. Be it the storm water drain project at Residency Road or the underpass near Cantonment Station, it has always been dig first, then crash-land into a pool of complaints and then lose a day or two or even weeks convincing the public and finding alternatives.
The vision statement focuses on a few policy-level measures that could help ease traffic bottlenecks during various construction works. Alongside, it also looks at easy shifting of other utility services at the spot. “It’s not just about going ahead with development works, but the intense and intelligent planning that needs to precede it all,’’ ABIDe members told The Times of India.
One of the major issues with development projects has been the lack of coordination between the various civic agencies involved. However, ABIDe hopes to resolve much of it, being the nodal agency coordinating with them all.
STEP BY STEP
Effective coordination between various civic agencies
Reduce discomfort to public during development works
Ensure timely and intelligent diversion in place before work commences
Prompt and hassle-free shifting of utility services How to draw up a diversion without hindering traffic
Asimple modification in the tendering process making it mandatory to include the diversion plan, with details of the route and present conditions of the slip roads. “Digging work would proceed only after the conditions of the slip road satisfy the traffic capacity,’’ says the ABIDe expert committee. The traffic diversion road must be strengthened to match traffic capacity. Further, the civic agency executing the work must ensure that the traffic police gets the diversion plan three months in advance. This would give them enough time to experiment on all possible alternatives to ensure a safe alternative before work begins. The diversion plan can also be withheld if the traffic police does not find it feasible.
New roads will have a duct (1.5m x 2m or 1.5m x 1m below the footpath) on either side just for the utility services. This is to reduce the constant need for road cutting during maintenance works. As for the old roads in the city, it would be made mandatory to have the utility lines reexamined before the asphalt works.