Harebrained projects that drained the exchequer

K R Puram suspension bridge:

The suspension bridge at K R Puram, initially designed and constructed at a whopping budget of close to Rs 200 crore and conferred the national award for being the best bridge by the Indian Institution of Bridge Engineers, has now proved to be the root cause for traffic congestions in the vicinity.

The design of the structure is such that there is obstruction to the smooth flow of traffic below it. The single pillar is blamed for causing the traffic bottleneck, with permanent slow movement of vehicles on one end of the flyover.

The flyover is part of National Highway-75, which connects Karnataka to Tamil Nadu. The structure has hampered traffic flow at the Tin Factory junction, rather than ease the situation. State-of-the-art aesthetics have been incorporated in the design, but the government has ignored quite a few flaws in the structure .

Regular commuters through the K R Puram Railway Station junction say the slow moving traffic is due to the narrow roads. The supporting pillars of the flyover connecting the bridge have further shrunk the space at the junction, which sees heavy traffic all through the day.

Preeti Mishra, a resident of Whitefield who commutes on this road every day, said: “Every time I come to this area, I get stuck at the KR Puram Railway Station junction for a minimum of 20 minutes, despite the distance being a mere 400 metre.”

K R Puram Sub Inspector, M Jayaram, said: “We monitor this area from 7 am to 11 pm with short breaks. The skywalk provides us a little shade. But the dust and heat in the area make the working conditions really challenging.”

The flyover is extremely narrow at the ramp. With bus stops located right there, traffic slows down a great deal. “Pedestrians running across the road, despite the skywalk, add to the problem.”

National College junction flyover

It is a infrastructure behemoth that finds few takers. The 408-metre flyover, which was inaugurated seven years ago, cost the tax-payers Rs 8 crore. It was built to solve traffic congestion problems, ignoring protests by environmentalists and residents.

Rituja Jain, a resident of Vani Vilas Road, recalls nostalgically: “This place had a beautiful circle with trees years ago, before this flyover was constructed.

Despite protests by residents, they went ahead with the construction.” Result: Loss of pristine greenery.

Some commuters said more thought should have gone into the project at the planning level. According to Karthik Iyer, a banker, it is no more than a ‘half’ flyover. “It is too short to make a difference to the traffic congestion problem,” he said.

Kiran, a motorist, says, “There should be a purpose for every construction. The traffic situation was never so bad to begin with. There are areas in Bangalore which need a flyover much more. But crores of rupees have been spent on this project, which does not have public approval.”

“People use this flyover because it is there, not because it helps commuters in any great way.”

However, Shambanna, an SI manning traffic near the flyover, begs to differ. Calling it an emergency lane, he says: “It is very well used and is particularly good for emergency situations, with no interruptions.”

The Richmond Circle flyover is extremely narrow and full of potholes towards the
Double Road side, which makes traffic movement very difficult.

Pallavi Manoj,
Student

 The traffic is extremely slow at the bottleneck near KR Puram railway station under the
KR Puram cable-stayed bridge. But, once that stretch is crossed the traffic becomes comparatively better. It at least keeps moving constantly.

Kiran G, resident, behind Tin Factory


The whole fault lies in the design, wherein a narrow one-way flyover (Richmond Circle) has been converted into a narrower two-way lane causing acute traffic congestion.

Meghana Basavaraju, student