BENGALURU: Following the recent Karnataka High Court verdict okaying the construction of a steel flyover by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Hare Krishna Road at Shivananda Circle, work here has picked up pace now. The court refused to stay its construction following an interlocutory application filed by some local residents.
Prior to its verdict on January 9 on an interlocutory petition filed on behalf of residents opposing the project, the court had directed the Urban Development Department (UDD) to assess the stands of both BBMP and the petitioners. Three hearings were held by UDD additional chief secretary Mahendra Jain. The traffic police were asked to give their submissions. This report highlighted the government stand on the project and was submitted to the court. A copy of the document submitted by Jain is with The New Indian Express.
The Shivananda Circle junction sees a heavy volume of peak hour traffic, at nearly 11,000 passenger car units, which begins right from 7 am.
Stating that the contention of the petitioners was not strong either on technical grounds or on procedural grounds for the project to be dropped, the report says, “The flyover is therefore considered necessary as it will help in streamlining traffic control, reduce network traffic in the nodes, increase bandwidth of carriageway, reduce congestion and pollution by emission and reduce the risk of accidents.”
It advises BBMP to explore the option of transplanting trees rather than cutting them and to expedite remodeling of railway underpass with the Railways.
On behalf of residents, the petition, filed by K S Prasad of High Grounds, had cited many technical issues against the construction. These include an insufficient size of the Railway underpass, steep gradient of the ramp, road width not being uniform, absence of a bus bay or stop, insufficient clearance under the flyover, the project not being fully signal-free and loss of a large number of trees.
The BBMP officials strongly countered each of these objections. “The claim of the petitioner is not based on any expert opinion on gradients,” it said. “The gradient provided is of the ratio 1:15, which is only marginally higher than the standard advice for construction of flyover by the Indian Road Congress,” their advocate said.
“Although the proposed flyover does not achieve signal-free movements in all directions, it makes the east-to-west movement signal free, which carries the highest volume of traffic,” the BBMP advocate submitted.
The traffic congestion would be reduced to 80 per cent despite the shortcomings. Moreover, the traffic police had given their ‘no objection’ for the construction of the flyover. The BBMP also pointed out that the clearance of 4.5m under the flyover was sufficient. “Providing higher clearance would lead to a steeper gradient and in CBD areas, heavy vehicles do not ply,” it said.
The steel flyover project has made a provision for a bus stop negating the claim of the petitioners. The BBMP has also assured planting ten trees to replace each one of the trees cut.
In Progress
A detailed project report was prepared by Manasa Consultants, appointed by BBMP. It was placed before the Technical Advisory Committee on April 16. After it was approved, the BBMP Council approved it. Financial bids of tenders called submitted for approval of the Empowered Committee constituted by the state government.
The committee sought a report from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on the sustainability and necessity of the project. IISc cleared its construction. Work order issued by BBMP and digging work for pillars began in November 2017.
Shivananda steel bridge background
The project was conceived in 2012
Costs nearly D50 crore
Length of flyover is 326.25m
Four bi-directional lanes to help smooth flow of traffic coming from Race Course Circle towards Seshadripuram Railway Under Bridge