Slow moving traffic on Marathahalli-Sarjapur Outer Ring Road on Tuesday.
Credit: DH Photo/Pushkar V
Bengaluru: Widespread showers, construction work and fog, besides the usual Tuesday morning peak hour traffic, contributed to severe traffic congestion in the city, especially on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in eastern Bengaluru.
The city traffic police noted that the congestion on the stretch between Silk Board and Marathahalli junction was particularly affected due to multi-agency infrastructural works.
“The BMRCL is working on the ORR metro line, including electric cabling and the BBMP is clearing stormwater drains on the ORR, besides taking up white-topping work on roads leading to ORR,” said M N Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
“The BWSSB is working on both the Cauvery Stage 5 in the area and underground drain work along the ORR. Everything is going on simultaneously and has depleted road space,” he added.
Roads leading to and around the ORR, including the service road, Vibgyor School Road, Gear School Road, Bellandur Lake Road, Panathur Main Road (where road widening work is happening at the S Cross) and Varthur-Gunjur Main Road were also chock-a-block.
The rain on Monday, well into the night, played spoilsport on Tuesday morning, with several roads waterlogged. As of 5.30 am on Tuesday, the Bengaluru City observatory of the Meteorological Centre, IMD, recorded a total of 39.5 mm of rain from 8.30 am on Monday. The HAL observatory recorded 33 mm of rain.
“The quantum of rainfall is not a huge problem compared to the rate of rainfall per hour. In our observation, if the rate of rainfall exceeds 10 to 12 mm an hour, then we have noticed the roads and traffic getting affected,” said Anucheth, emphasising that this was merely an internal observation, not based on evidence.
By 11.30 am, however, the congestion worsened on the portion of the ORR from Marathahalli towards Hebbal, due to persistent waterlogging at Ramamurthy Nagar underpass, among other places.