The Maruthi Sevanagar over bridge is an important link between the Central Business District and the ever expanding residential areas like Kamanahalli, Banaswadi, Ramamurthy Nagar and Kalyan Nagar. However, the unscientifically designed two-lane bridge has failed to cope up with the exploding vehicular traffic. Hence, the residents in the vicinity have come up with a solution to address the problem by introducing a few modifications to the existing bridge.
Following their campaign on September 22, a public hearing was held in Banaswadi pertaining to the proposed modifications to Maruthi Sevanagara bridge by BWSSB Chief Engineer Venkataraju and Eshanya Bengalurina Nagarikara Kalyana Mahavedika in the presence of K J George, MLA of Sarvagnanagar, PC Mohan, Member of Parliament, Bangalore Central and MN SreehariTraffic Adviser to Government of Karnataka. The corporators of Kammanahalli, Maruthisevanagar, Kacharakanahalli and Banaswadi wards were also present on the occasion.
BWSSB Chief Engineer Venkataraju gave a presentation on the existing bridge as well as the proposed to be modified bridge. He went a mile ahead and also gave a video presentation of the modifications that are likely to be witnessed if the plan kicks off.
He also showed how without disturbing the existing bride and just by building a new bridge by its side and subways, the traffic movement can be brought under control and people travelling from and towards Kammanahalli, Maruthisevanagar and Banaswadi will no longer have to face any problems.
Traffic expert M N Sreehari said, “I was trying to find flaws in the presentation but I could not. It is one of the finest plans I have come across so far. Now it is upto the BBMP technical committee to take the plan to the next level with some fine tuning.” Chief Engineer Venkataraju who has been residing in the locality for many years, said, “The issues pertaining to traffic movement has been there for past six years. When the road widening work started from ITC, we called up the BBMP commissioner and informed him of the situation. I convinced him that without widening the bridge, it is impossible to widen the road and it will not help the traffic movement in anyway. Since then the road widening work has not kicked off.”
He further added, “Later, we thought since we have come this far, it would not be right if we stop here. So we came up with a solution by ourselves and since I have been an engineer, I thought why not use my expertise.”
Any project requires a minimum number of acquisitions and faces a lot of objections initially. The modification of the bridge too is not an exception. Eshanya Bengalurina Nagarikara Kalyana Mahavedika and Venkataraju spoke to 25 associations who are likely to be affected in some way from the modification. There were political objections too. Taking everything into consideration, engineer Venkataraju came up with nine alternatives. And in last three months, he arrived at his tenth alternative which proved to be the best one so far.
He added, “We could not demolish the existing bridge and I had to come up with some plan that will give maximum benefit with minimum obstruction. And, this is the best I could do. We want the BBMP to take this project up on priority basis. In the next two years, the traffic is predicted to increase two-folds, considering new shopping malls are making their entry to this part of the world.”