Roof garden, loo on underbridge

Roof garden, loo on underbridge
Sunitha Rao R | TNN

Bangalore: A park on an underbridge? This surely typifies Bangalore city, which is still trying to look bright and fresh, despite its swiftly balding green cover.
Residents of Nayandanahalli and surrounding areas will shortly have a unique park atop the newly constructed underbridge. By the end of May, the park will tinkle with fountains just next to the elevated service road on Nayandanahalli, and will be a first of its kind.
There will also be a Sulabh Shouchalaya nearby.
With the construction of this railway underbridge by Bangalore Development Authority, the 800-metre stretch of Outer Ring Road completes full circle, circumscribing the city. The Outer Ring Road at this stretch also contains an important railway crossing of the Bangalore-Mysore line. BDA has also taken a decision to connect this ORR under the railway line and avoid a level crossing at Nayandanahalli, situated in the heart of Bangalore city. The underbridge, which will be open for public use by the end of May, does more than connect the two parts of the city.
M H M Sreeprakash, executive engineer of BDA, told The Times of India that the roof garden will reduce temperatures by 2-4 degrees in the surrounding areas. Besides, BDA has plans to let creepers grow on the wall of the service roads next to the underpass. “We have plans of not painting the walls, but developing the stretch as a green wall, with the help of creepers,” said Sreeprakash.
As per the survey conducted by the Public Welfare Department in February 2010, 1.25 lakh vehicles commute from Magadihalli to this junction every day. Construction of the railway underbridge has been entrusted to Nagarjuna Construction Company Limited on tender basis.
On the roof garden, there are provisions made to instal solar panels so that the underpass will be illuminated by solar lights and need not depend upon Bescom power.
RAINWATER HARVESTING
According to BDA officials, for the first time in the city, a rainwater harvesting system has been designed near the underpass for a capacity of 6,00,000 litres of water, as a means of supply to plants, and to charge borewells. The same water will also be utilized in the Sulabh Shouchalaya installed atop the underbridge.
NO WATER CLOGGING HERE
Water usually clogs underpasses, especially during the monsoon, and there have been instances of buses stuck in the water. To avoid this, grating drains have been introduced to allow rainwater to seep into the groundwater chamber.
MORE ON THE BRIDGE This underbridge links Sumanahalli Junction to Mysore Road This bridge cuts travel by about 5.5 km Underbridge is technically called ‘cut and cover’ Is 170 metres long, and built at a cost of Rs 79 crore Work began in June 2008