BENGALURU: Enraged parents and residents urged that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) should stop giving permission for apartment constructions to prevent roads getting choked after school children in and around Balagere, Varthur had to return home without attending classes as they were stuck in traffic for two-and-a-half hours. At Varthur Disha apartment, a candle light protest was launched against the traffic situation on Balagere-Varthur Road.
Around 30 school buses of various institutions returned and dropped the students back to their homes after they were asked by the schools to do so.
Ashok Mruthyunjaya, AAP chief, Mahadevpura Zone, blamed the local MLA Aravind Limbavali for the traffic, and said, “The traffic situation has been terrible over the last eight years, and Limbavali is in power for the last 14 years. He has done little or nothing to address the issue, while permissions are given for more apartments without widening the roads.”
Traffic began snarling up from 7 am when school buses started plying, and today Orchid School asked students to return home, he added.
Jagadish Reddy, a resident of Varthur and a member of the Varthur Rising, said, “The BBMP should first ensure basic infrastructure like widening of T-junctions, instal large sewage pipes, widen roads as new projects will exacerbate the traffic situation. Moreover, there are no traffic police to manage the issue at critical junctions.”
“The Balagere-Varthur Road is not even 15 feet wide, and the Palike is said to have given permission to big builders without given sustainable infrastructure,” said Reddy.
A Whitefield traffic police constable, who regularly monitors the traffic, said, “There is a problem on Panathur, Balagere and Varthur Roads, and on Wednesday, due to some marriage functions in the surroundings, traffic was hit.”