The 12-year-old Sumanahalli flyover on Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru has developed a gaping hole big enough for the road below to be seen, raising serious questions over the quality of work and its maintenance, besides the safety of motorists. Work on construction of the flyover, taken up by the BDA in 2006, was completed in 2010. The flyover was handed over to the BBMP a few years later. A similar hole had developed in 2019, less than a decade after the flyover was commissioned. The flyover is supposed to have a lifespan of 80 years. This is not the first such instance. Last December, the elevated flyover on Tumkur road, constructed and maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), had to be shut for all traffic for two months after pre-stressed cables developed cracks at two places. Movement of heavy vehicles continues to be banned even after eight months and many experts are of the view that the only solution would be to demolish the structure, as it is beyond repair. Also, the steel bridge at Shivananda Circle had to be temporarily closed for repairs within a day of its inauguration.
In 2020, the BBMP appointed a third party to audit all flyovers and underpasses, at a cost of Rs 5 crore. The firm, while submitting that the 29 flyovers and underpasses inspected by it were structurally sound, had also stated that none of them was being regularly maintained. It is thus obvious that besides the possible low quality of construction, the Sumanahalli flyover was a victim of poor maintenance. The consultant thoroughly examined the foundation, substructure, super-structure, prestressing material, bearings, wearing out, concrete crash, expansion joints and drain sprouts. A similar exercise needs to be carried out on all flyovers maintained by the NHAI and other agencies.
However, civic bodies should first evolve a compressive mobility plan instead of looking at flyovers and underpasses as the only panacea for the transport problems of the city. In fact, these piecemeal interventions, without proper feasibility studies preceding them, have actually added to Bengaluru’s traffic woes—the flyovers at K R Puram, Hebbal, Silk Board, Richmond Road and Banaswadi being just a few such examples. The unscientific planning of flyovers, the long gestation periods before completion, shoddy construction and poor maintenance complicate matters further. Unfortunately, our city planners are short-sighted and are more interested in quick fixes rather than in finding lasting solutions.