Electronic City expressway almost ready

Electronic City expressway almost ready

Bangalore Bureau
It will be thrown open to traffic soon, says NHAI official
— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

THE FAST LANE: The 10-km elevated expressway to Electronic City is expected to ease traffic on Hosur Road in Bangalore once it is inaugurated.
BANGALORE: With work on the much-awaited Hosur Road Elevated Expressway almost complete, motorists commuting to Electronic City can soon look forward to faster and signal-free travel to work and back home on the 10-km expressway stretching from Bommanahalli to Electronic City.

Though the date for the official inauguration of the elevated expressway, built at an estimated cost of Rs. 880 crore, has not been finalised, a senior official of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) told The Hindu here that the access-controlled expressway will be thrown open to traffic soon.

“The expressway is almost ready. But, we can’t say when it will be inaugurated. But, it will not take long (for the expressway to be thrown open to traffic,” he said.

Officials are confident that motorists would take less than 20 minutes to cover the distance between Bommanahalli — just after the Central Silk Board Junction — and Electronic City against the one hour it now takes during peak hours.

The existing road, which is part of the National Highway 7 is choked with not only vehicles plying between Bangalore city and Electronic City but also trucks and other vehicles bound for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Work on the four-lane expressway began in June 2006 after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone. It was originally scheduled to be completed in 24 months.

The four-lane expressway will run above the six-lane existing highway. The median dividing the traffic had been completed and the lanes too had been marked along a good portion of the expressway. Streetlights had been fixed along the road and personnel were found testing the lights on Sunday.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Praveen Sood said he had heard that the work on the expressway had been completed. He added that he was not aware of the date of its inauguration.

“Nobody has told us when it will be inaugurated. There is a need to introduce certain changes in the traffic rules ahead of the inauguration,” he said.

However, Mr. Sood favoured an early inauguration of the expressway as it would ease the burden on other roads in the area.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Bangalore East, Muthanna, who is the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner of Police for traffic, said that he was yet to be consulted about the likely date of inauguration.

Meanwhile, at least two other traffic infrastructure projects in the city are said to have been completed and awaiting formal inauguration. “I understand that the work on Wheeler Road Flyover and Horamavu Underpass has also been completed. They can be inaugurated anytime,” Mr. Sood said.