'Flyover would have been better'

After spending crores of rupees on construction of an underpass, some BBMP officers are of the view that a flyover would have been a better choice at Kadirenahalli.

According to them, even if the underpass is completed, the KS Layout-ORR (Outer ring road) intersection poses a great danger to motorists.

Vehicles rushing towards Kumaraswamy Layout from Banashankari cannot see the vehicles plying on the ORR.

A traffic signal light to avoid accidents at the intersection is inevitable, which again would be risky for the motorists if they are coming from Deve Gowda petrol pump side towards the underpass.

They will have to wait for green signal in the steep slope of the underpass. Heavy vehicles with poor braking system would pose great danger, they say.

So far the BBMP has spent Rs 28 crore, excluding the compensation paid to people who lost their properties to the project. It would have to shell out almost similar amount of money to rectify the mistakes by constructing another underpass.

However, the Chief Engineer of the BBMP (Major Roads) S Somashekar doesn’t think so.

“We could not extend the grade separator at Kadirenahalli up to the two intersections in view of the inconvenience it would have caused to the people,” he said.

Having decided to construct another underpass, the Palike floated tenders five times. But so far no contractor has come forward to take up the work.

The Palike is also contemplating on constructing a flyover from Dayananda Sagar College end to the road towards Banashankari. However, its feasibility has not been tested yet.

Traffic expert M N Srihari squarely blamed the Palike for not extending the underpass up to the second road intersection at the Kumaraswamy Layout- ORR junction. “I feel underpass was the better choice but it should have been extended to the KS Layout-ORR intersection.”