BENGALURU: With the state cabinet deciding to allocate Rs 200 crore towards the Gorguntepalya flyover proposed by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) five years ago, preliminary work for the project is finally set to begin. When the project materialises, vehicle users will get respite from a major traffic bottleneck at the Gorguntepalya junction on Tumakuru Road. The Rs 727 crore project had remained a non-starter due to major issues pertaining to land acquisition and the financial crunch faced by the BDA.
The proposed flyover will begin at the junction of the Kanteerava Studios flyover and the Tumakuru Main Road and will continue up to the BEL Circle. It will have six lanes, three in each direction measuring 10.5 metres and a median in between. An underpass and a new railway bridge that will cross the Yeshwantpur-Tumakuru Line will supplement the existing railway bridge.
Work on the completed railway bridge, popularly referred to as Gorguntepalya bridge, which was taking a long time, was completed following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention after an 8-year-old schoolchild, Abhinav, wrote about his sufferings to reach the school to the PM.
“Commuters on the Outer Ring Road heading towards the Mysuru Road need to take a detour daily. They get stuck at two major signals along this route: the Taj Vivanta signal and the one at Gorguntepalya junction. The junction too gets jammed with vehicles from three main roads converging here. It is a daily misery for commuters as vehicles inch along this 1-km stretch here during morning and evening hours,” said a senior BDA official. “Anyone using this stretch is set to save half an hour daily if the flyover comes up,” he added.
Everything is finally falling in place, he added. “The Defence Department has agreed to give us the 7 acres and 29 guntas of land required in exchange of land at Belagavi and Karwar,” he said. The government had ‘in principle’ okayed the project recently and has now announced the Rs 200 crore allocation needed for it under the Nagarothama scheme in the ongoing cabinet session, he added. “This will help us begin the project by calling for tenders within two or three months.”
Of the Rs 727 crore cost, Rs 615.88 crore will be paid as compensation amount for private parties for acquiring 10 acres and 15 guntas of their land while Rs 111.12 crore is the construction cost.
