BENGALURU: Ever since its launch, the Bengaluru-Mysuru ‘Access-controlled Highway’ has been wrongly termed as an ‘expressway’, officials of the National Highways Authority of India said on Wednesday. The clarification came after commuters questioned the restrictions imposed on certain vehicles along with the speed limit. “The maximum speed limit on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Access-controlled Highway has been 100 km per hour. People confuse this with ‘expressways’ in other parts of India where the maximum speed limit is 120 km per hour. It is an ‘access-controlled highway’ and not an ‘expressway’. The maximum allowed speed is 100 km per hour,” said NHAI Regional Officer Vivek Jaiswal.
Explaining the difference, an NHAI team said expressways have limited entry and exit points with no other roads merging or crossing them. The maximum speed limit is 120 km per hour. On access-controlled highways, the speed limit is 100 km per hour. But that is not the case with highways, where access is not restricted.
The access-controlled highway was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 12 and has been in the news for the increasing number of accidents. Police have been penalising vehicles crossing the 100-km per hour speed limit.
In the backdrop of the restriction imposed on slow-moving vehicles, including two- and three-wheelers, from entering the main carriage of the access-controlled from August 1, a section of frequent travellers are now wondering if the maximum speed limit should be increased from 100 to 120 km per hour as per the ‘expressways’ mandate of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
“While the maximum speed limit on expressways is 120 km per hour, police are penalising vehicles that cross the 100-km per hour limit. They argue that there are many accidents on the stretch. However, with the restriction on slow-moving vehicles, especially two-wheelers, in place, we wish that the speed limit be enhanced to 120 km per hour,” said Prakash Murugan, a regular traveller.
As the number of accidents was increasing, Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety) Alok Kumar inspected the stretch in June and introduced a slew of measures. One such was to penalise vehicles cruising at over 100 km per hour.
Alok Kumar told The New Indian Express that the police are penalising vehicles that cross 100 km per hour on the extreme right lane and 80 km per hour on the middle lane.