BENGALURU: If the proposed steel flyover materialises, motorists heading to South Bengaluru from the airport through this route are set to have a torrid time manoeuvring their way from Basaveshwara Circle towards Hudson Circle.
A government source, also an authority on traffic, said that the traffic is choked for one km along the route leading from Nrupatunga Road to Hudson Circle. “Just imagine a situation where vehicles from the airport come down this ramp and converge at this point. The scenario is likely to worsen.”
“What is vital is to ensure that a flyover is constructed at Hebbal before such a situation arises. Traffic problems that could arise if some arrangement is not made is unimaginable,” he said.
Professor of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), J M Chandra Kishen concurs. “This is what has happened in Yeshwantpur. See the bottleneck created at Sadashiva Nagar due to the flyover constructed there and the traffic problem created at Hebbal due to the flyover that has come up there,” he said.
Easing traffic flow on partial stretches will never help as the traffic will merely get diverted to another junction in the process.
Anyone heading to South Bengaluru will only take the road from Nrupatunga Road to Hudson Circle, he stressed.
Calling for a detailed study, Kishen said, “We need to conduct a thorough study on junctions nearby and analyse how traffic from a flyover impacts them. The vehicles that would use the flyover within the next 20 years need to be taken into account.”
‘Monorail needed’
Traffic expert M N Sreehari said that traffic at Hudson Circle itself was not a big issue. “Even if the proposed flyover gets constructed it would get congested within five years.”
Stressing on the need for a mass transport system like monorail along the proposed flyover from Basaveshwara Circle to Esteem Mall or even beyond that, Sreehari says that this would ensure that 15,000-20,000 commuters travel per hour. “There will be tree cutting involved, but no traffic jams anywhere.”
“The proposed flyover costs `240 crore per km while monorail will only cost between `160 crore and `170 crore per km,” he said.