Bengaluru: Cunningham Road connects many important points in the city like Shivajinagara, Sadashivnagar, Sankey Tank, Queens Road and many more. Hence, it is one of the busiest road and sees have density of vehicles.
If you are heading towards Cunningham Road even in non-peak hours keep at least 10-15 minutes buffering time. As BBMP tendersure work had reached Cunningham Road, it has been facing severe traffic bottle necks as commuters complain their travel time have increased considerably in the last many days.
Cunningham Road is quite a busy stretch as it houses hospitals, theatres, pubs, hotels, restaurants, schools and colleges in its vicinity. Suranjan Das, father of a six year old and who comes to drop his daughter to Mount Carmel School says, “I drive my two-wheeler from Mayo Hall to Mount Carmel school every day to drop my daughter. Earlier it used to take me hardly half an hour. Now, it takes almost an hour.”
Voicing a similar opinion Fatima, whose office is situated towards the end of Cunningham Road and drives a four-wheeler from Ulsoor says, “Driving a four-wheeler in this chaos has become very difficult.
There is not a single time in the day when the traffic is flowing smoothly. Sometimes, it takes more than hour to reach office. And the traffic is chaotic during show hours in Sigma Mall.”
To makes things worse, ambulances coming to Fortis hospital remains stuck in this traffic mess. Moreover, there is a huge bus stop in this road, which also adds to the issue.
Besides, traffic jams; there are many ancillary issues in this stretch. Vehicles are being parked haphazardly in the entire stretch which aggravates the traffic mess even more.
And it is not only the two-wheelers and four-wheelers, even the pedestrians are facing the heat. In order to avoid the traffic snarls two-wheelers ride on the footpath of the other side, thereby obstructing the pedestrians.
Again, there is a big pothole near Cannara Bank right after the speed breaker. Pabhakar, a security guard from Cannara Bank ATM points out, “Many two-wheelers have fallen into this pothole and have even injured themselves during the rains. A few had to taken to the hospital as well.”
On the other hand, traders rues that the BBMP work has affected their business tremendously. Mary K from Sweet Chariot restaurant says, “Our business has come down drastically.
We have seen a difference of 60 percent in our business.” Agreeing to the point, Mohammad Hasif from a fast food restaurant in the premises of Sigma Mall says, “Not many people now come to the mall so our business has been affected considerably. People come only for movies during the weekends.”
Ranganathan, a traffic constable says, “Peak hours has been a difficult time to mane the traffic.” Meanwhile B Dayananda, the additional commissioner of traffic police of Bengaluru maintains, “We have allowed the tendersure work to go on and we have been witnessing slow moving traffic all through out the day.
Hence, we have dispatched extra human resources to mane the traffic during peak hours.”
