Murphy Road to be made a 2-way

Murphy Road to be made a 2-way

With work on the Metro Rail Project underway in Ulsoor, BMRCL has plans to turn Murphy Road into a two-way. To ease congestion of traffic is the reason given

SHASHWATHI BHANUKUMAR



Five years after it was made a one-way, Murphy Road in Ulsoor will very soon witness two-way traffic flow, courtesy BMRCL’s Namma Metro project.
Having learnt a bitter lesson from the M G Road site where traffic management plans went for a toss, BMRCL has decided to decongest the Swami Vivekananda Road (where Ulsoor Metro station is coming up) by converting Murphy Road into a two-way. The Metro project work on M G Road had faced hiccups as vehicles on the road were allowed to ply in both the directions.
“We don’t want to face similar situations elsewhere, that is why we plan to make the stretch from Gurudwara to Phillips Millenia Towers a two - way” a BMRCL official told Bangalore Mirror while pointing out that barricading work for Ulsoor had begun and had made the road narrow.
The BMRCL is contemplating writing a letter to the traffic police authorities to seek their permission in making it a twoway. “Light weight vehicles can move on Swami Vivekananda Road (the Old Madras Road ) but heavier vehicles will have to stick to plying only on Murphy Town and surrounding areas” suggested Yeshavanth Chavan, Chief Public Relations Officer of BMRCL.
The Ulsoor traffic authorities too concur that with the traffic being heavy on Ulsoor Road and no other alternative in sight, opening up Murphy Road would be the right option. Kavitha M C, Police Inspector of Ulsoor Traffic Police said “We might consider turning Murphy Road into a two - way. It has become difficult to manage the traffic on the Ulsoor Road as the road has become narrow. It has become a problem for both localities and public transport.”
Murphy Town was in fact a two-way, a few years back. There used to be heavy traffic on the road at all times and the stretch between Millenia Towers and the Gurudwara has even seen a few serious accidents. It was after a very fatal accident on the stretch that the traffic department had decided to make it a one- way, to avoid similar tragedies.
Now if the traffic department accepts BMRCL’s request and makes Murphy Road a two -way again, it may be a case of history repeating itself with traffic jams and accidents becoming a regular affair. Safer alternatives need to be thought of.