BANGALORE: Travelling to the Bangalore International Airport (BIA) was always a tedious task for commuters. But BMTC’s Vayu Vajra’s service had sorted out traffic congestion to a large extent. However, with the toll collection beginning in full swing, the increased traffic woes have left Bangalorean’s with no space to breathe.
Not only have the pollution levels enroute to the BIA doubled, with the traffic inflow increasing, problems of traffic is only worsening. Moreover, with taxi and cab owners hiking up their fares from the city to the BIA, owing to payment of the toll, people are now preferring to travel either by private vehicles or by the satellite bus service. However, a closer look at the everyday traffic in the area reveals that almost 75 per cent of the commuters are travelling up to Yelahanka in their private cars and then taking a BMTC bus.
“This is not only increasing traffic congestion from the city to the BIA, but is disrupting normal traffic inflow in the area for regular commuters. In peak hours, there are hundreds of vehicles moving towards BIA but surprisingly more than half of these vehicles don’t even close in towards the airport. We figured out that private cars are causing main problems,” said Gurunath, a constable stationed near Hebbal junction.
When Express spoke to a few such private vehicle owners, they claimed that instead of paying almost Rs 1,000 to get from the heart of the city towards the airport, they preferred to take their private vehicles.
“I usually take my car till Yelahanka and then hop onto the BMTC bus that takes me to the airport. It is very convenient,” said Devashish Mishra, a city-based entrepreneur.
However, when questioned about the increasing traffic because of this, he claimed that it is something everyone has been doing. “I agree that traffic could rise because of this, but there are no areas in Bangalore that are traffic free. We shouldn’t be blamed because of this,” said Catherine D’Souza, another regular BIA passenger who has been following this trend.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has pointed out that with double the traffic inflow, the pollution levels too has risen to shocking levels. With no solutions at hand and the BBMP and BIA not resolving the issue related to the completed alternative route from South Bangalore towards BIA, it seems like problems are only worsening for the city.