Pay-and-use roads have not helped

"The department has noticed that a few of these elevated structures have further contributed to the chaos on the roads instead of providing relief. A major cause for the failure of these structures to provide the much needed relief is the toll collection itself,” remarks a senior traffic police officer.

The Electronics City traffic police claim that the Hosur road elevated tollway is a failure, because the IT and BT sector professionals prefer the toll-free road below, while riding their personal vehicles.

Apparently, the authorities had studied the traffic pattern before deciding to implement the project, but they failed to take into consideration the Indian road users' mindset.

The pillars supporting the elevated tollways cut into the space of the free road below.

That means even lesser space for the mounting number of vehicles to negotiate. Besides, several stretches on the roads beneath act as connecting points to service roads or interior roads. All these only add to the congestion, observe the police.

Experts feel if the government was really honest about traffic decongestion through access-controlled elevated roads, the toll has to be reduced.

That would attract more vehicles, giving the much needed relief for the roads underneath. Steps could also be taken to ban movement of certain type of vehicles on the roads below. If the toll was moderate, private vehicles using the entire stretch and beyond could be made to use only the tolled flyover. The solution, then, is increasing the volume of vehicles on the tollways by making the toll affordable.

Without such a strategy, the tolled routes could end up like the elevated tollways on Tumkur road near Peenya, where the vehicular volume is much below desired levels. Proper planning and an integrated approach to fixing toll could be the solutions, even for the future projects.