BENGALURU: After rain delays and months of work, the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has finally removed a footpath projection at Minsk Square. The projection was meant to be a high-speed pier. Instead, it proved to be causing a bottleneck and was hampering easy traffic flow at the intersection.
Work on removing the protrusion officially concluded on Tuesday with a part of it being sectioned off and asphalted to make for easy flow of traffic. The move comes after a years-long campaign from Citizens for Citizens (C4C) which had highlighted the difficulties caused by the protrusion way back in 2017.
With the help of Police Commissioner Kamal Pant and Joint Police Commissioner (Traffic) Dr Ravikanthe Gowda, the organisation approached BMRCL earlier this year to address the issue. A video shot by C4C showed the protrusion creating a bottleneck, blocking traffic on Cubbon Road, Raj Bhavan Road and Queen’s Road. “During rush hour every day, there were many near-misses too as motorists had to keep a constant eye to their right so that they wouldn’t be hit while stuck in traffic. It was a problem that persisted for many years,” Rajkumar Dugar, founder and convener of C4C, told TNIE.
“We wanted to give up just trying to navigate the system, but we’re glad we persisted and that BMRCL MD Anjum Parwez was open-minded and helped provide a solution to the problem,” said Dugar, “There are many such instances in Bengaluru and we advise that people to keep persisting in their efforts.”