Waterlogged roads, traffic snarls and potholes have turned the Ecospace service road on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) Bellandur into a living hell. The road which is home to a host of IT biggies, MNCs and many upscale city residential clusters is a nightmare for motorists, pedestrians and residents alike.
Incessant rains over the last few days caused the Savalkere Lake to overflow onto Ecospace road. Police were seen struggling to handle traffic from late in the night until the early hours of Monday.
Savalkere Lake near the Ecospace service road overflowed and water gushed on to the ORR causing waterlogging at the tech park RMZ Ecospace on the arterial road.
Savalkere is one of the largest lakes in the city. According to local residents, most part of the lake is encroached upon by illegal builders, causing blockages and silting of rajakaluves (stormwater drains).
There are five lakes around Sarjapur. If one lake overflows, the water should flow through the drain to another lake. The water overflowing in Savalkere should pass through the rajakaluve to Bellandur lake. But alas.
“The rajakaluve is blocked by the silt on account of encroachments. Hence, the excess water overflows onto the road causing a nuisance to pedestrians and motorists. We have complained to the BBMP. But no action has been taken yet,” said one of the residents of the area.
Priyank Sharma, a private firm employee who works at RMZ Ecospace, said: “It is difficult to ride on this road, this is the arterial road in the city but whenever it rains, it is a mess. We can’t come to office on this waterlogged road, by the time we reach office we are drenched with sewage water.”
Speaking to DH, Abhishek Goyal, DCP (Traffic-East) said: “There is a huge traffic jam near Ecospace service road since Sunday. There is one-foot-deep water on the road. The traffic police are working 24/7 to control the situation. I request commuters to avoid the Outer Ring Road till the situation becomes normal.”
‘Work from home’
The Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association (ORRCA) has issued a circular requesting all companies in RMZ Ecospace to ask their employees to work from home on Monday.
“After experiencing the ORR yesterday, we have requested associated companies to give a work-from-home option to their employees who are travelling from silk board junction side and from far places. Traffic is getting worse by the day. It takes four to five hours to reach office. It is better to work from home to ensure the required productivity,” Vinod Chandran, a member of ORRCA, said.
“Though the work-from-home is not ideal, it is better than being stuck in traffic for hours. Companies need to decide on it. We recommended it,” he added. Waterlogged roads, Traffic snarls and potholes are the conditions of the Ecospace service road in Outer Ring Road (ORR), near Bellandur which hosts thousands of companies as well as several residential areas, is proving to be a nightmare for commuters.
Published 16 October 2017, 19:56 IST