BENGALURU: After three years of delay, work on the Rs 19.5-crore Wind Tunnel Road-Old Airport Road underpass has finally commenced. As per engineers of Bengaluru Central City Corporation, the 300-metre underpass was designed by the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) project department. They wanted to add a service road and install precast boxes, but Bengaluru Traffic Police did not agree to it.
“We wanted to make the 17km stretch from ASC Junction to Hope Farm Junction in Whitefield a signal-free corridor, and opened the HAL-Suranjandas Road Junction and Kundalahalli underpass in February 2023. However, to start the Wind Tunnel Road-Old Airport Road underpass works, the traffic department refused to give NOC for road cutting, citing that the route is heavily stressed and there is VIP movement on a daily basis,” said a senior engineer.
On the directions of Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao, work was taken up and the necessary NOCs were obtained.
Work will be executed in three phases. Under Phase-1, utilities will be relocated and a barrier will be constructed, with installation of a magic box from Golden Enclave and HP Petrol Bunk side, then digging will be taken up. This will take 60 days. In the second phase, installation of the magic box on UR Rao Satellite Centre (ISRO) side will take another 60 days.
The service road, civil works, lighting and installation of reflectors will take another 60 days in Phase-3. “Totally, 180 working days are required for the underpass work. If there are heavy rains, work will get hampered, and it may be delayed by a few more weeks,” the engineer said.
“The reason we started anew is due to school holidays, by the time schools reopen, digging work may have been completed. Arrangements have been made to allow traffic from the opposite side of HP Petrol Bunk, and central medians for about 150 meters have been pushed aside to make way for vehicles coming from Old Airport Road side towards the city to avoid a bottleneck,” the engineer stated.
Meanwhile, Rao inspected works on Wednesday and directed officials to use cutting-edge technology and try to complete the work in three months’ time. Since the road has high traffic congestion, work should be carried out in three shifts using additional machinery and completed within the stipulated time.
“To ensure there is no disruption to vehicular traffic during underpass work, temporary roads are being constructed on both sides of the junction in the Defence, ISRO, NAL departments and private lands to facilitate vehicular traffic,” said Rao.
