Unclog Bangalore’s core with m

Unclog Bangalore’s core with m



Express Features First Published : 17 Mar 2009 09:20:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 17 Mar 2009 02:13:01 PM IST
BANGALORE: One of the major challenges in solving the city’s traffic problems is decongestion of the core area that has witnessed unplanned development, narrow roads and a large volume of traffic. A monorail could be an answer to this problem.
The government has been contemplating over a monorail proposal through the inner part of the city.
The proposed alignment is different from the one suggested in the Comprehensive Traffic and Transportation Plan (CTTP) for Bangalore. The new alignment could help solve traffic problems as it runs through densely populated and high-traffic areas and also integrates with other modes of public transport- metro, railway and bus system.
The new proposal from Scomi- Geodesic consortium has three lines (as shown in the map), totalling 61.5 km, that cross core areas like Cantonment Railway Station, Millers Road, Residency Road, MG Road, Kamraj Road, Minsq Square, Trinity Circle, Ulsoor Lake, KH Circle, Majestic, Ananda Rao Circle, Race Course Road, Nrupthunga Road, Hudson Circle, Lalbagh Road, JC Road,Sampangiram Nagar, Wilson Garden, Lakkasandra, VV Puram, Forum Mall, Koramangala, Banashankari, Basavanagudi. Bellary Road, Sankey Road, Malleswaram, Mahalakshmi Layout, Rajajinagar, Chord Road, and Bapujinagar.
The CTTP had suggested four corridors (a total of 60 km) of monorail/ LRT line: Hebbal to J P Nagar (Bannerghatta Road) along the western portion of outer ring road (31 km), PRR to Toll Gate along Magadi Road (9 km), Kathriguppe Road / Ring Road Junction to National College (5 km) and Hosur Road - Bannerghatta Road Junction to PRR along Bannerghatta Road (15 km).
The government’s decision on the proposal is awaited. A presentation on the same before Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDe) task force is expected to be held in May-June.
“Monorail could be the best solution to solve traffic problems in the inner city to a great extent and the proposed alignment, with a few minor changes, seems efficient, said Advisor to Government of Karnataka on Traffic and Transportation issues,” Professor M N Sreehari.
However, he emphasised that integration of metro rail, monorail and bus system would be crucial for the success of each of the systems.
Monorail to support other modes of public transport The new alignment of monorail is proposed as a feeder to metro rail and not as an alternative and hence the alignment supports metro rather than competing with it and thus avoid running parallel to metro. The proposed monorail alignment crosses metro rail phase I line at six places, and the proposed alignment of Phase II at another six points.
Traffic from monorail and metro can integrate at these intersections. The alignment also crosses three railway stations and seven traffic and transit management centres (TTMC) of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp which have been designed to facilitate integration of different modes of traffic.
Integration Points ● The monorail alignment crosses the Metro alignment at 12 places: Phase I- West of chord road (Mahalakshmi layout), Leprosy Hospital (Magadi road), South end circle, Majestic, SJ Polytechnic, Old Madras road Phase II- Banashankari, Lalbagh road, Dairy circle, Cantonment, St John’s church road, Domlur junction ● It connects to seven TTMCs: Yeshwanthpur, Subhashnagar (Majestic), Shantinagar, Jayanagar, Koramangala, Domlur, Indiranagar ● It connects to 3 railway stations: City, Cantonment, Yeshwanthpur ● It connects to 2 KSRTC terminal stations: Subhashnagar (Majestic), Mysore Road