Who will BEL this cat?

Who will BEL this cat?
There are four signals in a 3.4 km stretch from BEL circle to Sadashivnagar police station, which makes everyone, VIPs included, travelling here even during non-peak hours curse this road
BANGALORE MIRROR BUREAU


If you are driving down 80 Feet Road towards Ramaiah College and don’t want to be caught up in endless traffic jams, then you have to be adept at one thing: You have to have the capacity to get your car or bike past each of the four signals dotting this stretch in less than 15 seconds.
Ordinary mortals, of course, have no option in this regard, so they settle for the painful stopgo-stop grind that makes BEL road such a miserable place even during non-peak hours. In fact, it takes 10 minutes to cover a distance of 500 metres. The fact there is no free left or right turn here worsens the situation.
BEL road is considered one of the most upmarket places in North Bangalore, with posh areas like Dollars colony, RMV layout and Sadashiv Nagar adjoining it. Bangalore Mirror did a test drive to observe first-hand the problems on BEL road.
TEST DRIVE
We deliberately started our test drive during a non-peak hour, to know the conditions of commuters traveling during that time. We started from BEL circle at 3.07 pm and our destination was Sadashivnagar police station circle. There were four circles (signals) along the way.
After travelling for about 300 metres from BEL circle, we had to negotiate a curvy graveled road, with our bike speed falling below 15 km/hr. It’s a short ride but at night it becomes especially dangerous as there is neither streetlights nor embankment along this road. We reached the RMV 2nd Stage Layout Circle and stopped for about a minute. No problem. We cruised through and reached ISRO circle and again stopped for a minute. No problem, but remember it was not peak hour.
Next, we had to slow down near a big manhole repaired recently and that had barricades around it. We reached the notorious Ramaiah Circle and here we were held up for a minute and 14 seconds. As we crossed the circle, we couln’t help noticing the pathetic state of waiting drivers coming from 80 ft road.
After crossing the signal, we saw the road tapering off. Reason - the earth dug up on the sides had been put on the road and footpaths, forcing pedestrians to walk on the road. We reached Sadashiv Nagar police station circle at 3.21 pm. COMMUTER WOES Some reactions of commuters who use BEL road everyday:






Testing
patience
It took 14 minutes to commute a distance of 3.6 Km. Fourteen minutes is not very long time, but it underlines the fact that commuters need to brace themselves up even for nonpeak hour of city’s traffic.






Everyday I start from home praying not to meet with an accident on BEL road.What is worse is that ambulances coming to Ramaiah hospital get stuck in the traffic. Samyutha Balasubramaniam,
student of MBBS in Ramaiah



I consider it as the road of equality. Excluding the CM, everybody has to deal with the horrible traffic. Naveen Kumar, a manager of a IT company



BEL road hosts many IT companies. The area is surrounded by big institutions like IISc and Ramaiah college. Many VIPS stay nearby. But still everybody has to face the same consequences. Vishwas Revankar, a student of Ramaiah college



Lack of parking space forces us to walk a long way to go to a shop or food joint. Nandita, student of Ramaiah college



Bangalore’s traffic is more horrible than Pune. Compared to Pune, even the road conditions worse here. Manju Tirumale, a tourist