Junction upgrades to be delayed

Redesigning the architecture of many traffic junctions in the City might give a mega boost to streamlined flow of traffic.

But this upgrade, eminently possible by cost-effective tweaking of road and footpath widths, is now linked to Tender SURE (Specification for Urban Road Execution), a public-private, comprehensive, multi-pronged initiative to improve the city roads to international standards. Tender SURE is still stuck at the tendering stage.

Junction upgrade could have been accomplished at a much faster pace, and later integrated to the larger network of standardised roads.

Urban design architects had made a series of presentations to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Urban Development department officials, stressing on the immediate benefits of smartly planned intersections.

A city with 45 lakh vehicles and an acutely overstretched traffic management system had to act fast to decongest the roads by whatever means. Yet, the civic agencies are apparently in no hurry!

The intersections proposed for upgrade included the Brigade Road - Residency Road junction, Hudson Circle, Mayo Hall junction, and Nanjappa Circle.

BBMP officials told Deccan Herald that most of these would be taken up under Tender SURE, along with other locations such as Trinity Cirlce and Anil Kumble Circle. But the project was bound to be delayed.  
 
Proposed remodelling

Haphazardly planned, poorly maintained traffic intersections often trigger congestions on the road. The design team, including Architecture Paradigm, Apparatus Media Lab, Hundred Hands and Venkatramanan Associates, had drawn attention to the poor road geometry at the junctions, where width of the streets and footpaths are not uniform. They had also suggested clearly demarcated pedestrian crossings, signages, development of urban spaces to boost the aesthetic experience.

For instance, the proposed remodelling of the Mayo Hall junction had well-defined areas for movement of vehicles and pedestrians. The footpaths would be wider, exclusive spaces marked for an autorickshaw stand, Big Ten buses, waiting area for bus passengers. An underpass, bus gate and pedestrian-activated signals are also part of the new plan.

The underpass would have three entry points, one from Mayo Hall side, another from Bangalore Central side and a third from the bus stop on the road leading to Garuda Mall. The space underground would be wide enough to accommodate a restaurant with spacious seating arrangement. The design shows that the Mayo Hall entry into the underpass would be through an open-air plaza, approached through steps from the ground level.