Metro curbs on MG Road: Detour is the rule

Metro curbs on MG Road: Detour is the rule
BENGALURU


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The many traffic diversions have hit bus commuters the hardest as the bus routes too have changed. Also walking and cycling on these roads has become difficult as the traffic management is very poor.

Tanmoy Chakravarthy, Law student Traffic has been diverted in such a way that it collides at many points, leading to accidents on these roads. Ulsoor Road and Cubbon Road have not been made use of for traffic diversions.

Pari, Former corporator The diversions are confusing. The police needs to install proper signboards and man the traffic on these routes during peak hours to make things easier for the public. Hemanth Kumar Businessman

Driving down Dickenson Road, Commer- cial Street, Kamaraj Road and St John's Road has become something of a nightmare ever since the stretch between Webbs ground and Trinity Junction on MG Road was cut off for traffic to allow work on the Metro Rail to go on unhin- dered. Motorists, who are forced to take a detour to reach the free stretch of MG Road, are caught in frequent traffic jams and even acci- dents at times on these roads, says Sagai Raj, a resi- dent of Ulsoor.
The diversions have increased the traffic not only on Commercial Street, but also its nearby residential bylanes, complain the peo- ple. Life , they say, has become particularly difficult for pedestrians, especially the children and senior citi- zens, who have a tough time crossing the roads.

“We don't allow our chil- dren out to play anymore as they could meet with acci- dents," says Mr Raj.

Peak hours see chaos at the N Neelakantan circle near the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar where several minior accidents are also reported during the day.

“Despite the chaos there are hardly any policemen to regulate the traffic.

A

policeman was posted the first day that the traf- fic was diverted and now we don't see him anymore,” the people lament.
Students of two colleges located in the area are par- ticularly inconvenienced as buses are not allowed on

the Annaswamy Mudaliar Road. They are forced to either to go to Trinity Junc- tion or Kamaraj Road to board buses.
Additional commissioner of police (Traffic) Praveen Sood explains there are not as many policemen as there should be on these roads as the department is short of staff.

“But we have roped in home guards and eco guards to help us. If no policeman was posted, the vehicles would not move at all," he contends, warning that the public will have to put up with the inconvenience on these roads for at least the next 90 days.