JOIN USIncreasing traffic woes
Like travelling on the roads of Bangalore is not a hassle already, the developmental works and diversions add all the more to the woes of the commuters. The recent example of this is the Cubbon Road in the heart of the City, a part of which has been closed due to the ongoing Metro work.
And it’s going to be closed for three years. The stretch in question is the one from Minsk Square to BRV Junction. One may say it’s not a very big road, but the point is it serves as a connecting point to many other important areas of the City. The traffic has been diverted in this area from March 23 so the commuters taking that route have to go around to reach their destinations.
Sunila, a psychology lecturer at Bishop Cotton Women’s Christian College, is a resident of Sadashivnagar and often takes this route to go to Koramangala.
“It’s an important road that connects the centre of the City to areas like Koramangala and Indiranagar. On the evening of March 23, I took the route to come back to Sadashivnagar from Koramangala and there was a lot of traffic converging on M G Road. Due to this, even Museum Road was jammed for quite sometime and it took me ten minutes to reach Koshy’s from there,” she says. “Earlier, we knew what traffic we would be facing and could leave accordingly. But now the commuters taking this route will just have to leave earlier.”
Pranav, a sixth standard student, takes the route daily from his home in Vasanthnagar to reach his school, St Joseph’s European Boys’ High School on Museum Road. “Before, it used to take me 20 minutes to reach school as I had to clear three signals. But now with a different route, I don’t know how long it will take,” he says. His father Prabhakar, a businessman drops him to school everyday. “It’s around four kilometres and even without any of the diversions, it used to take half an hour. But now it will take even longer.”
Says B L Y Chavan, the Chief Public Relations Officer of BMRCL, “The work is done on the ‘cut and cover system’ of the underground which means we dig into the ground and create the station and close it. So it is not that easy to dig into -12 metres or 18 metres of the ground.” He also assures that it may not take as long as three years. “We want to be careful that’s why we have given the maximum timeframe of three years. It may finish much earlier than that,” he informs.
“Besides, other routes are available and have been fixed with the approval of the traffic police.”
Even the citizens, despite facing trouble, are optimistic. “Whatever it is, it’s being done for a good reason. At the end of it, we are getting something good out of it,” notes Sunila. While Prabhakar feels, “By spending ten minutes extra today, if we can help build a good Metro for the future, then it’s all worth the trouble.”