Is that left or right?

Unlike the other chaotic roads of the City, Commissariat Road from Garuda Mall to Lifestyle, is well-planned and devoid of potholes. However, one closer look and motorists would notice that the traffic movement here is a little peculiar in style.

Motorists coming from Markham Road have to cross the road to take a left instead of taking an immediate left to go towards Garuda Mall. The same holds good for people coming from the Mayo Hall side. While commuters are aware that vehicles move on the right lane instead of left here, they are used to looking at their right to see if any vehicle is coming just like it is on any other road of the City. Hence, they are caught unawares by vehicles coming from the left.

According to traffic authorities, this is the only lane in Bangalore in which the traffic, which should have ideally been moving on the left, is plying on the right and vice-versa.  This lane-swap can confuse motorists and sometimes lead to accidents. Rosewall, who works with the operations of Bengaluru FC, goes to the Football Stadium everyday from Koramangala.

“Now, I am used to it. But earlier, I would always take the wrong road. Once, I was taking the immediate left from Markham Road to go towards Garuda Mall when my pillion rider thankfully told me to cross and take a left. It’s a unique road,” he says.

According to the Garuda Mall authorities, this is a temporary solution. Says Nandish, Manager, Garuda Mall, “The authorities cannot make the road one-way as it would pose more problems. However, they can shift the lanes and make the traffic ply in the normal manner here.”

 While Uday Garudachar, the owner of the mall, feels it’s a temporary arrangement thanks to Magrath Road being under constant repair. Lamenting at the condition of the road in and around, he says, “Our footfalls have depleted heavily. The entry-exit is heavily jeopardised and the authorities have been redesigning the road for two years. It’s a public private partnership and no one listens to us.”

However, traffic authorities have no plans of changing the road in future. Traffic authorities in the Ashok Nagar police station traffic limits say that this was done to avoid creating another signal in the area.

 “The first time I saw this road, even I was a little taken aback. However, traffic has been plying like this here for the last three years. This is the correct way for vehicles to move on this road. This
was planned by the traffic experts many years ago to avoid another signal here,” says a constable who works in this area. B Dayananda, additional commissioner of police (traffic), says that this road was designed in this fashion to ease traffic.

“The term used for this traffic flow is ‘contraflow’, which means the traffic flows in contrast to the normal flow. There are many one-ways in this area and a road like this was required to ease the traffic flow. In fact, there are many cities that have the same flow of traffic,” he sums up.