BENGALURU: With an aim to decongest traffic towards ITPL tech park, Whitefield, and after a two-and-a-half year delay, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will finally call for tenders for developing new routes by the end of this month. “We are preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) right now,” Someshekar S, chief engineer (road infrastructure), BBMP, said.
The Rs 80 crore project involving 14 alternative routes had been approved by the Siddaramaiah government. The project is expected to commence in August this year. “Once the work starts, it will take six to eight months for its completion,” said Somashekar. BBMP officials say the change in government had put the project on hold even though an action plan was sent by the civic agency to the government
The 14 routes covering 43 km will help provide better alternative connectivity to ITPL and surrounding areas. These roads are expected to take the pressure off ITPL Main Road, where Metro work has led to bottlenecks.
“All these routes include road widening, adding new roads and improvement of existing roads. We had discussed the finalisation of these routes with the traffic police, citizens, and urban experts and how to go about it,” said Jayashankar Reddy, executive engineer, Mahadevapura zone, BBMP, who is project in-charge.
The work will also include remodelling of footpath, drainage and uniform carriage ways. Now, Whitefield and ITPL are accessed mainly through two arterial roads – ITPL Main Road and HAL Airport Road.
Civic agency to start Rs 700 cr projects
BBMP has agreed to take up projects worth about Rs 700 crore, as per recommendations made by the traffic police, which had recently conducted a survey to check ways to to ease congestion. The BBMP project is likely to start in three months. A few projects will start early, including development of 206 raised pedestrian crossings, 86 skywalks and shifting of nine bus bays. “It is better to start early as traffic is increasing every day,” P Harishekaran, additional commissioner of police, traffic, said. However, Praveen Lingaiah, executive engineer, said the idea of 34 pedestrian underpasses is not feasible. “People don’t even use the existing ones, and some are also locked,” he said, adding that medians and street lights will be put up.
– Aarthi M