BENGALURU: With one half of the main carriageway below Nallurhalli Metro Station on the extended Purple Line closed for over two months now to rectify an issue at the station, commuters are forced to risk life and limb to cross the road at one entrance. Commuters going to and from ‘A’ entrance of the station make a dash in the face of speeding incoming vehicles.
With Metro work going on, the EPIP Road running to a length of 250metres and width of 25feet is barricaded on both ends, in the direction from Graphite India towards Vaidehi Circle. With this road shut, those emerging from ‘A’ exit reach the service road, located along GE Health Care.
BMRCL MD M Maheshwar Rao told TNIE, “A truss erection has been done at the spot to bridge a gap at Nallurhalli station. Hence, half the road below the station is blocked. Work will be completed here shortly. We will review it and try to advance the timeline.”
Meanwhile, watching commuters cross the road is a trying affair. At the corner is a curve which makes it difficult for approaching vehicles to see pedestrians a few feet ahead. Adding to the risk is a road that joins it at the spot (referred to locally as the Neil Rao Tower Road) from where vehicles surge ahead and join the service road, posing a danger to vehicle users and pedestrians.
On Sunday evening, Mary Jacob was spotted making a dash across the service road with her son Aman Isac to enter Nallurhalli station. Isac told TNIE, “My mother was almost hit by a car when she was crossing. Just look at the bend there. It’s a very big hazard.”
Mary added, “We came to Nallurhalli area in the morning and had to wait for long to cross over from the station to the road. It is as if the station has just sprung up in the middle of a road and public are stuck. I was actually shocked we had to get out of a station in such a risky manner.”
IT professional Lokesh M said, “I have to run and cross even as vehicles are approaching. If we wait, we will never be able to cross.”
Nagaraj, an employee at ‘Liquor Library’ located across the road says, “Our business is suffering due to the lack of parking space now, as the service road has become the main road. Even buses are going past very fast. Even if one car is parked here, there is a big traffic jam.”
‘Whitefield Rising’, a citizens’ movement based in Whitefield, in a post on X recently drew attention to this issue.