“I travel from Uttarahalli to Cunningham Road daily. We are usually stuck in a traffic jam for more than an hour near Banashankari main bus stand even after the construction of the Kadirenahalli underpass. This is a problem and heaven help those patients who have to traverse this junction at any time of the day”, said Reena, a resident of Uttarahalli. She added, “We have lost precious lives, time and fuel with vehicles being jam-packed on this road”.
The long awaited project of Kadirenahalli underpass on Ring Road that took more than four years for completion seems to have made no difference to the passage of vehicles on this very important junction connecting Banashankari to various residential layouts in Bangalore south. The construction began in March 2008 and after four long years and much delay, was opened to the public in May 2012. The underpass was supposed to ease the traffic flow and provide better connectivity to areas such as Kumaraswamy Layout, ISRO Layout, Poorna Prajna Layout, Ramanjaneya Layout, Chikkalasandra and many more such far flung residential areas.
The usage of the Kadirenahalli underpass could have reduced the traffic conjestion if the traffic flow had been two way instead of the one way across the ring road. But ever since this underpass has been opened, the traffic movement has been at a snail’s pace and not properly managed. The commuters have to bear the brunt of waiting more than half an hour after they take a right turn from the bus stand and move towards Teacher’s colony.
Apart from that, the Kadirenhalli Cross bus stand is located beside the underpass and all the buses including other vehicles have to make a U-turn to go towards Uttarahalli.
The bus stand also adds to the gridlock. The traffic coming through the underpass on the Ring Road now comes to a standstill when buses coming from Banashankari do a U-turn and this traffic jam continues up to Banashankari, Padmanabhanagar and Kadirenhalli.
This has become a perpetual nuisance for the commuters travelling on this important junction everyday. Who is responsible for this traffic mis-management?
Gangadharappa, ACP, Banashankari accepted the fact that the underpass has not resolved the traffic woes in Ring road and nearby areas. “To solve the congestion, we need two more underpasses in this area one in Kumarswami Layout and the second one down the Ring Road itself. We have deputed enough staff to regulate the peak hour traffic but still the problem continues,” he said.
When we spoke to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) MA Saleem, the only justification he gave was, “Underpass and flyovers definitely ease out the traffic. But construction of an underpass in one area pushes the traffic to other adjacent areas.
In fact, the entire traffic management needs to be worked out scientifically and not just limited to one particular area.
For example, we have been able to address issues from the eastern side, starting from Silk Board to KR Puram which is now traffic free.”