Nightmare in Whitefield

Bengaluru: On November 16, for many Whitefield residents it took nearly 5-6 hours to reach home from office, thanks to the heavy rain and pothole-ridden roads. The major problem in Whitefield is that there are no alternate routes and the IT boom has increased the inflow of floating population and also a boom in the construction of residential apartments. All this has aggravated the civic woes plaguing the area and the authorities have done little to address them.

There are only two entry points to Whitefield - from Marathahalli and K.R. Puram. Hence the traffic flow has always been a problem. Although talks are on to create another access through Doddanekundi, but nothing has been done.

Ironically, this is the area from where the government earns the highest revenue. Still commuting to Whitefield and neighbouring areas is a nightmare. Over 10 lakh people come to Whitefield every day, but during peak hours on an average it takes nearly one hour to cover one kilometre.

There was a suggestion that IT parks should allow private vehicles to make use of their campus, as many of them are parked on the roads adding to the congestion. But except Kalyani Tech Park there is no other tech park that joins two roads.

R.K. Misra, civic expert said, “We need to create other access points to Whitefield. There is a proposal in the master plan to create an access point towards Doddanekundi, this should be done at the earliest. Also the Varthur Road needs to be improved. Then there are 30 roads that have been dug up by BWSSB to lay sewage lines and have not been restored. I brought the issue to the BWSSB Chairman and he has decided from now on to include restoration of road amount in the tender. Lastly we need to expedite the metro project. BMRCL is working on Mysore road lines and have not taken up Whitefield as priority, we need to bring the metro as soon as possible. If these things can be done, Whitefield would be comparatively safer.”

Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar, member of Praja RAAG, an advocacy group pointed out, “The biggest issue faced by Whitefield residents is lack of multimodal transport system. Presence of Inland Container Depot (ICDC) adds to Whitefield traffic problems. Buses and cars predominantly depending on only two roads. Absence of commuter rail, lack of good pedestrian facility with skywalks adds to traffic issues. Development of Whitefield railway station as major station will help commuters. Authorities need to build a foot over bridge in front of ITPL, Pheonix Mall Mahadevapura, Marathahalli railway flyover, SAP labs and run additional suburban rail from Yeswanthpur and Yelahanka to Whitefield. ”