B'luru is now City of one-ways

With 193 such roads, it stands second in the country Bosky Khanna

Bengaluru, referred to as the IT Capital and even Garbage City, has now earnined a new tag - City of one-way roads.

Deccan Herald obtained data from RTOs and traffic management authorities of major Indian cities with a population of more than 75 lakh and vehicular population of over 30 lakh.

According to the data, the City has the second highest number of one-ways in the country. Mumbai stands first with 253 one-ways. According to the Mumbai traffic police and the Municipal Corporation, this is because of the ongoing Metro and Mono Rail construction and after the inclusion of Navi Mumbai. Many one-ways are also introduced during festivals.

Next in line is Bengaluru with 193 one-ways. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), M A Saleem said this is because of the increasing traffic load. “We were forced to introduce one-ways in many places because the traffic volume on the road is high against the load it can take. Many one-ways were introduced after the Metro construction and road improvement works started. We are also working on introducing some more one-ways in the coming days,” he said.

Kolkata has 222 one-ways. These one-ways are enforced only during the day (from 8 am to 9 pm), while the rest of the time and during weekends they are two-ways. Technically there are no permanent one-ways here, said a Kolkata traffic police official.
Hyderabad stands last with only 35 one-ways, followed by Delhi which has 66 and Chennai has 141 one-ways.

“Many one-ways were recently introduced in Chennai because of the Metro construction and infrastructure works. They too are on a temporary basis,” said a Chennai traffic police official.

Traffic expert M N Sreehari said, “Bengaluru is a radial City unlike Mumbai where one-ways are needed to ensure smooth flow of traffic. But in the City many have been introduced even when they are not required.”