BENGALURU: On Monday, people took the new Doddanekundi flyover on the Marathahalli-Mahadevapura stretch hoping it would ease the traffic bottlenecks in Mahadevapura. But it hardly helped as there were reports of huge traffic jams across Mahadevapura during peak hours. The flyover was inaugurated on March 29.
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had planned to build two flyovers on the Marathahalli-Mahadevapura stretch of the Outer Ring Road in 2015 to ease traffic. The two flyovers were to be built at a cost of `47 crore and the deadline for the project was 18 months.
However, the project was going at a snail’s pace. The contractor alleged that the reason for the delay was BDA’s failure to relase money. Finally, the money was released and one flyover was completed. The work on the other flyover has just started.
Clement Jaykumar, a resident and member of Whitefield Rising, a citizens’ group, said, “On Monday, there was a huge traffic jam across the locality and on the flyover too.
Asphalting of the service road was going on and then a BMTC bus also broke down, which aggravated the issue. The flyover will definitely help those commuting from KR Puram to Marathahalli and vice versa, but those travelling below the flyover will have to face bottlenecks.
The flyover will make sense only when the traffic police and BDA make some intelligent changes in the traffic flow.”
Voicing a similar opinion, Zibi Jamal, another resident, said, “We people in this side of the city are used to seeing such traffic jams once in a while, and Monday was one such day.”
However, many Whitefield residents and commuters are positive that the flyover will be helpful. Anupama said, “I feel the flyover will benefit people as it will considerably reduce travel time between KR Puram and Marathahalli.”
Meanwhile, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George tweeted, “Doddanekundi Flyover with metro facility integration-1st phase KR Puram-Marathahalli route is completed and currently in the test run phase.”