Going the roundabout way!

LONG ROUTE

If the series of one-ways in the City are not bad enough, the construction of the first phase of Metro rail has brought with it a set of diversions.

While most diversions in the first phase will soon be lifted, the Bangalore traffic police has marked out diversions for the underground Metro work, which is slated to start soon.

Elaborate plans have been made to divert traffic. Roads in several parts of the City will be closed for three years to facilitate work for the underground Metro.

The stretch between K R Circle and the Old Post Office Road is partially closed. A parallel road has been constructed within the premises of Vidhana Soudha to allow vehicles to move along the same route. Presently, the buses are diverted along Maharani College and have to  join the State Bank of Mysore.

“The underground Metro is a cut and cover job. It was much easier to manage traffic for the overhead Metro. The underground metro will see major diversions and road closures,” Praveen Sood, ACP (Traffic and Safety), said.

Praveen explains that the second diversion will be from Gopal Gowda Circle to GPO through Ambedkar Veedhi. “When this diversion comes in to effect, people will have to use the west gate of Vidhana Soudha to enter the building and leave through the Palace Road. A parallel road has been constructed from GPO to Gopal Gowda Circle to allow movement of vehicles,” he says.

However, the biggest challenge the traffic police and the commuters will face in the three months is when the stretch between BRV Junction and Minsk Square closes completely.

The King’s Road that is parallel to Queen’s Road through Cubbon Park will be open and a new road will be constructed from Press Club to Ambedkar Veedhi.

B L Y Chavan, Chief Public Relations Officer, BMRC, says the construction of the underground section of the East-West Corridor, spanning 4.8 km ramp, is in progress and will be completed by February 2011. “Work on steel decking has begun at the Cubbon Park Station, near Minsk Square. The diversion work on the north side of the Vidhana Soudha has been completed,” explains Chavan.

Chavan points out that travelling in the City will be tough for a few months.
He says, “presently the diversion road work at the High Court is underway and the excavation for underground has started. Almost 11,000 cubic meters of soil has been excavated.”

But people say travelling through the City is only going to get worse with roads being closed. They reason that while the traffic on the existing roads is not going to change, the diversion will only add to the woes and increase the travelling time.
Shyam Rao, a consultant, thinks phase one of metro will not take off on schedule. “The existing roads are unable to handle the traffic. I wish some effort is made to widen the roads. And with the closing of roads, the commuters would be put to more inconvenience,” he adds.

Bartholomeo Gomes, an employee with Global Delivery Lead at Accenture, thinks the work on the underground metro rail will disrupt the smooth flow of traffic. “Not only will I have to leave early and spend more time on the road, I will have to deal with equally frustrated drivers,” he sums up.