BENGALURU: While residents of Panathur Main Road are used to enormous traffic jams lasting for at least an hour due to the Railway Under Bridge here, the serpentine traffic jam for 5.5 hours on Wednesday evening with over 750 vehicles, including school buses, standing without an inch to move, was an unprecedented high even by their own standards.
Humanity from the IT crowd residing in the apartments dotting the road came to the fore and relieved some stress of those cooped up inside vehicles. They helped the school kids by offering snacks and water and an apartment opened up its toilet for them too.
The rains in the morning here and the inflow from Gunjur into the Panathur Lake are cited as a reason for it.
Among those who opted to step out on the road leading to Kadubeesanahalli after witnessing the distress of children stuck inside buses was the couple Rinil Baxi, an IT professional and Parul, reesidents of Prime Lavender apartment. “When the traffic started building from 3 pm onwards, we did not give it much thought, But when we kept seeing the buses with children just not budging even after 4 pm, my wife started getting worried about the condition of the kid inside. So, I spoke to the apartment association and requested the common toilets be opened up for the students. They agreed,” said Baxi.
School buses of New Horizon Gurukul, Orchid, Vibgyor Rise, Gear, Patel’s were among those stuck here. “Many children accompanied by their caretakers came down to our apartment to use the washrooms. I also bought snacks and water and handed it over to the kids,” he added.
Anil Kumar Devaki, another IT professional, said, “The infrastructure work undertaken here clubbed with the water stagnation at the narrow Panathur RUB and another RUB near Chroma road are the reasons we had such a big mess here on Wednesday.”
Software engineer Madhan Madhuraiyyan tried his best to regulate the traffic here. “It took us a couple of hours to find a solution to remove the water logging. We decided to bring in an earthmover and breakdown hard mud at the Chroma signal and create space for the water to flow,” he said. Some parents came over in person and took their children from the buses but many were stuck from 3 pm to 8.30 pm inside them.
Civic officials and MLA Aravind Limbavalli offered us required support, Madhan added.