Mobility specialists and civic activists have criticised the approval from the Karnataka authorities for the development of 11 extra flyovers in Bengaluru, saying that the transfer doesn’t remedy the visitors congestion and bottlenecks within the metropolis.
Final week, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai mentioned, “It’s for the primary time within the historical past of Bengaluru that 11 flyovers s have been sanctioned in a single 12 months. These adjustments would supply long-lasting options to the residents.”
Whereas Bommai didn’t reveal which junctions the brand new flyovers can be constructed at, they’ve been proposed at Minerva Circle, Ittamadu Junction, Sarakki Sign, Nayandahalli-Tumakuru Highway stretch, Sankey Highway, Hosur Highway close to Discussion board Mall and St John’s Hospital, Yelahanka, and Hoodi, amongst others.
Based on Professor Ashish Verma, a mobility skilled from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, the transfer defies the rationality of the long-term and sustainable resolution and does the remedy the core challenge of the transportation congestion drawback. “In no technical or logical phrases, can one name these flyovers long-term or short-term options,” Prof Verma mentioned.
“That is fully brazen. They’re ignoring the voices of the specialists and other people. Should you assume you need to assemble a flyover at each junction, is there any metropolis on the planet which has executed this?”
At a gathering organised by Residents for Sankey, a residents’ collective, which met civic officers earlier this month to debate the BBMP’s plans on the Sankey Highway Flyover, the BBMP chief engineer hinted that extra flyovers within the pipeline, Verma mentioned.
“He mentioned that if we have now a collection of flyovers, we will transfer sooner. Then there was a touch that the federal government is planning many flyovers.”
The proposed widening of Sankey Tank Bund Highway and the flyover from T Chowdaiah Highway to 18th Cross in Bengaluru has drawn criticism from residents, civic activists and concrete specialists. Based on the residents, the venture won’t scale back the visitors congestion within the space, and the felling of timber near the bund might have ecological implications.
Verma identified that these street areas won’t ever suffice with the form of inhabitants development, and points will reoccur sooner or later.
“Additionally, the extra you create them, the extra miles you create. These flyovers make issues sooner however make you journey longer distances in lots of circumstances. This may even enhance your gasoline consumption, and extra emissions will occur. When our nation is just not oil-producing, 80% of our oil is thru imports, which is able to make our economic system extra oil dependent. The place is the pondering?” Prof Verma mentioned.
Civic activist, Srinivas Alavilli, mentioned, “After each flyover, extra autos have appeared in Bengaluru metropolis. If flyovers enhance, autos enhance. That is the science. Bengaluru resides proof of it. It’s a thriller why authorities after authorities retains developing flyovers when it’s clear they aren’t the answer. Flyovers are big-ticket infrastructure tasks and that’s the reason they go for it.”
Shivananda Circle Flyover – A lesson not discovered
City specialists identified that even the Shivananda Circle Flyover, constructed even after it drew robust opposition from the residents, has failed to handle the precise causes of congestion within the space.
“You assemble a flyover at one or two junctions. What can be the impact on the next junctions? The newest instance we have now been seeing is the Shivanand circle flyover. They proposed this plan to resolve the visitors congestion drawback, now they’ve a bottleneck simply forward of it on the railway crossing. So, your complete goal of the flyover is defeated,” Verma mentioned.
Mahesh, who was on the forefront of the agitation, mentioned that regardless of two specialists from the IISc, Ashish Verma and MN Sreehari, who supplied inputs and pressured that the Shivananda Circle Flyover was going to be a catastrophe, the authorities didn’t think about it and neither did the courtroom.
“After the development of the flyover, it has turn into chaos for the service street. Earlier, the street width was roughly 120 ft. At present, there is no such thing as a bus cease. Even when buses cease there, the visitors piles up. In peak hours, the service street and flyover are jammed due to the railway monitor. What’s the good enjoyable in spending the exchequer’s cash? Particularly through the wet season, the visitors underneath the railway bridge is chaos. It has solely been helpful for the politicians,” Mahesh mentioned.
“A metropolis’s development, prosperity, and livability depend upon the collective knowledge of all people,” Verma added.