Do away with underpass

Do away with underpass
Lots of trees have been butchered mercilessly in and around K R Road for the construction of a flyover at the National College junction and for the Metro. The projectes have been delayed for years
Karthik Sastry R


Basavanagudi is one of the oldest, greenest and best-planned localities in Bangalore. Being a resident of this area from the time I was born, I am strongly against the underpass project at Tagore Circle Junction. A lot of trees have already been butchered mercilessly in and around K R Road for the construction of a flyover at the National College junction and for the Metro. The traffic on the entire stretch of
K R Road is high only from 9.30 am to 11 am and 6.30 pm to 8 pm.
Signal lights have been installed at every junction on this road right from KIMS/Makkalakoota Junction till the other end at BSK 2nd Stage/Monotype junction, except at Tagore Circle Junction. This clearly indicates that a traffic jam is almost non-existent here. A single traffic cop at this junction during peak hours is sufficient to regulate the traffic flow.
The flyover at National College junction was a total waste of public money as a negligible number of vehicles use it and the irony is that even after the construction of the flyover, the signal lights are back again below it. At present the traffic movement on K R Road is affected due to the Metro work and the underpass work is adding to the problem.
I commute everyday to Kumaraswamy Layout to get to my college by BMTC and it took 20 minutes for me in 2007. But for the last one and a half years, my travel time has doubled because of the underpass construction at Kadirenahalli junction and now due to the underpass construction at Tagore Circle, I need an hour to travel less than 6 km! All the students who study in my college and educational institutions in this part of Bangalore are facing this problem. The amount of fossil fuel wasted and pollution is also high due to the 1.5 km detour the buses need to take.
The Tagore circle underpass was commissioned by the JDS-BJP coalition government three years ago without considering the opinion of the locals. My question is, why was the work not taken up in the last three years? The authorities have erected boards at this junction stating the clearances obtained from civic agencies to proceed with the work.
But the civic agencies say they were not at all approached and also the column which says “Clearance and approval from Police, dated: “ is blank. I therefore request the elected representatives and the government to intervene immediately and suspend the useless project at this initial stage itself and restore K R Road.
Since only the surface of the road is removed, I feel the money required to restore it is negligible when compared to the cost of the entire project. The amount allocated to this project can be used to restore greenery in this garden city by planting and maintaining trees and for basic civic works like provision of proper footpaths, roads and clearing of storm water drains.