Bengaluru: The new traffic diversion at Madiwala Junction may temporarily provide solutions to the growing challenges in this area, but if permanently implemented, a major Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) project will go waste.
In 2010, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike constructed the Madiwala underpass at a cost of Rs 16 crores, and the road was widened by 30 meters at a further cost of Rs 27 crores. But with the intersecting road temporarily closed to traffic, it appears likely that all these funds may have gone down the drain.
On Friday, the traffic police barricaded the road from St John’s Junction to Madiwala. Now, all the vehicles going from Madiwala Checkpost to Maruthinagar have to go via Sarjapur Road after taking a right turn at Water Tank junction and another right turn in front of Kendriya Sadhana.
Also, in another diversion, the traffic police have closed the road from Koramangala BDA Complex to St John’s Junction. Vehicle users coming from Koramangala BDA complex towards Madiwala should take a compulsory left turn at Water Tank junction and go past Krupanidhi college junction to get to Hosur Road.
The lack of vision while planning a state highway road has started to take its toll on commuters traveling towards Hosur and Sarjapur Road. For the past three days vehicles are queuing up till Diary Circle even at 11 pm, as a result of this new diversion. With this new plan, the underpass at Ayyappa Temple junction has become redundant as there is no intersecting traffic on this junction.
Route map for Madiwala junction provided by traffic police
Though fast movement of vehicles could be enabled through the diversion, the Santhe Beedi road in Madiwala is bound to get congested, as it does not have the capacity to hold a high volume of vehicles. Furthermore, there would be chaos on Sarjapura Road too as traffic would double, with vehicles going towards Sarjapur and Hosur Main Road taking the same route. Commenting on this traffic diversion, K.T Nagaraj, superintendent (Roads), said that the one-way could not be implemented for long as the road connects with a state highway
Mr. Nagaraj said, “It’s a 30 metre road and such a wide road cannot be closed to traffic. Also, this traffic diversion will affect the traffic movement on Sarjapur Road, which does not have the capacity for such a high increase in traffic. It should have been planned better.”
It may be recalled that the six-km stretch between Vellara Junction and the Central Silk Board on Hosur Road was part of the 11 signal-free corridors. The government had even hoped that the underpasses would help bring down the commuting time by 30 minutes, when the Madiwala flyover was thrown open to the public. Meanwhile, pedestrians and those visiting the Madiwala market will be the worst affected as the road does not have skywalks and lacks pedestrian pathways.
