BENGALURU: The Siddaramaiah government has been batting for the steel flyover in the city asserting that it will decongest traffic moving towards the airport. But experts say the construction will virtually eat into road space below the flyover and cause a traffic mess on ground.
If width of the columns of the proposed flyover, connecting Basaveshwara Circle and Hebbal, are large it will shrink road space and result in traffic snarls, say experts and citizens. They fear a repeat of the chaotic situation below the Electronics City flyover, where bottlenecks are a daily bane because of the reduced road space. Experts claim 20-30 percent of road width will go into construction of the elevated flyover.
A former BBMP official, who didn’t want to be named, said, “The width of the road varies on this stretch. From Windsor Manor to Mekhri Circle, the width of the carriageway is 50 feet but from Sanjaynagar to Hebbal, it is 100 feet.” This itself makes traffic movement less smooth, causing snarls at every point.
M N Sreehari, traffic expert, said, “A minimum of 18-20 metres width will have to be given away for four lanes and a minimum 24 metres for six lanes. The width on the elevated flyover for one lane should be 3.5 metres, 7 metres for two lanes and 10.5 metres for three. If the columns occupy a large space, this will create bottlenecks below the flyover.”
It’s a view shared by Vinay Sreenivas of the Bangalore Bus Prayanikara Vedike. “Reduced road space below flyover will cause congestion on all approach roads. Seasoned campaigners for sustainable transport refer also to the reduced footpath space time and again. Instead of a steel flyover, more roads should be built to reach the airport,” he said.
IISc researcher SR Adeesh feels decreased road space will make traffic management on the ground a real challenge. “The map needs a lot of changes. We will need many intermediate points and the flyover should not block the rest of the streets. If there is heavy traffic on the flyover, the situation will be difficult,” he said.