BENGALURU: The move to ease traffic congestion at Sarakki junction, where the busy Outer Ring Road (ORR) in South Bengaluru and Kanakapura intersect, by building a flyover has not made any progress. Last year, the BBMP had handed over the Sarraki flyover project to BMRCL, to be made into a Double Decker flyover through integration with its Phase-3 project.
The BBMP had first proposed the flyover in 2004, and data reveals that the project cost has escalated from Rs 40 crore to Rs 136 crore currently. The four-lane flyover with a width of 17 metres, was to run from the 15th Cross of ORR upto Ilyas Nagar covering a length of 1.2 km. The DPR was ready by 2019-end.
An official source said, “During a meeting convened by former Revenue Minister R Ashoka in 2022, a decision was taken to hand over the flyover construction to BMRCL, so that it would be build along with the JP Nagar Phase IV - Kempapura corridor of Phase-3.” However, Phase-3 still awaits clearance from the Centre and will not happen for now.
An individual familiar with the developments, said, “The double-decker flyover will be similar to the one built by BMRCL at Ragigudda. It will be on the lower level at a height of 5.5 metres from ground level while Metro line will run a level above it (13.5 metres above ground). It was decided that BMRCL will ready the flyover well before the Metro line, to save public from the notorious traffic.”
Public has to suffer daily, waiting for a long time at the Sarakki junction. Ravichandran R, a resident of JP Nagar VIth Phase told TNIE, “The flyover which was planned long ago was meant to bring relief to residents. But nothing has happened. Everytime there would be an announcement of approval by the State government, but it would get postponed, or the budget will be re-allocated for something else.”
Senior citizen AH Kesari Prasad, a resident of ‘Maya Indraprastha’ in the locality said, “The present arrangement is pedestrian un-friendly. Whenever people go from Kanakapura Road to JP Nagar Metro station, we literally have to run for our lives across the ORR. Sarakki flyover would reduce the traffic load and when that happens pedestrians would be given some attention.”
Despite TNIE trying for a week to get BMRCL’s response on the progress, Metro chose to remain silent. Chief General Manager Mahadevaswamy, in-charge of the project, refused to share any information, and asked the reporter to approach the PR team. A questionnaire sent to the team four days ago remains unanswered. Chief Public Relations Officer B L Yashwanth Chavan refused to respond despite reminders.
A top BBMP official said, “We will be handing them Rs 40 crore as our contribution for the flyover.”