BENGALURU: You can blame Bengaluru’s notorious reputation as a congested city on the infrastructure problems at seven junctions – Hudson Circle area, Ramanamaharshi Road from Mehkri Circle to Windsor Manor junction, Outer Ring Road between Silk Board junction and Jayadeva flyover, Hebbal flyover, K R Puram between Benniganahalli and Mahadevapura flyover, Nagawara junction, Bannerghatta Road between Dairy Circle and Sagar Apollo Hospital. According to the traffic police, these are the seven major bottlenecks that cause clogging of roads in the city.
Experts, however, believe that there are many more snarl-prone areas that need to be added to the list, which was drawn up by the traffic police in March. Officials, on their part, say there is only a certain extent to which they can ease vehicle movement. Bottlenecks are a design fault, arising because vehicular population and road width are not taken into consideration, said P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic). “We are going to deploy four to five personnel at these spots. We have asked for 1,000 staffers who are in training now. We will ask for another 1,000 personnel in two years as the number of vehicles is likely to increase,” he added.
Other factors add to their woes, say traffic cops. “BBMP and BWSSB officials are digging up more roads, creating more jams,” a cop said. Though not much is being done about infrastructure improvement in all these areas, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has been in the process of constructing a second loop at Hebbal flyover. “The Hebbal loop has been delayed since we are planning to integrate it with the Metro,” BDA Commissioner Rakesh Singh told CE.
Traffic experts assert that every flyover leads to a bottleneck situation. “This is caused due to a difference in the road’s capacity,” mobility expert Ashish Verma said. Experts also feel that traffic personnel can only do micro-management, and cannot come up with scientific solutions. Launch of Metro services at Hebbal may not resolve the situation either, urban expert V Ravichandar said.