JOIN USFor unsuspecting motorists, nothing could get more dangerous than an abrupt contraflow (movement of traffic in the reverse direction).
Yet, this system introduced on Bengaluru’s Commissariat road in front of Garuda Mall and a few other city roads as a temporary measure has remained unchanged for years. Should this complete reversal of the traffic police’s “Keep Left” anthem be allowed to continue forever, endangering lives, ask harried motorists.
Newcomers approaching the Garuda Mall junction from Residency road side at high speed are stumped by the sudden shift in traffic direction. They need to either turn left at the junction towards Hosmat junction or head straight towards Lifestyle junction by following a new convention: “Keep Right,” a total novelty for Bengaluru. If motorists fail to read the signboard, they risk ramming into an oncoming vehicle, head-on!
The danger is even more pronounced at the Lifestyle junction where motorists from Victoria road, General Thimaya road (Richmond road) and St. Philomena’s road converge. In their rush towards the Mall and roads thereafter, motorists often get precariously close to keeping left and inviting collisions. “It is always confusing at that junction. Regulars like me can manage, but what about people who are coming for the first time?” wonders motorcyclist, Muralikrishna.
Eight years ago, when the contraflow system was introduced on Commissariat road, the city traffic police had a rationale: Civic works on Magrath road adjacent to the Garuda Mall. But even after the road works were completed, the contraflow has remained. The police now say it is to avoid a signalled junction at the spot where the Magrath and Commissariat roads intersect.
A top traffic police official said the contraflow system might go once the ongoing TenderSURE work on Commissariat road is completed. But, since this work is going on at a snail’s pace due to rock-drilling hurdles, the implication is clear: The reverse flow of traffic will not be abandoned in a hurry.
Contraflow systems mandate the need to post more traffic policemen and install highly visible signboards.
These boards, as traffic experts reiterate, should warn speeding motorists of the direction reversal much ahead of the junction. But approaching roads to the Garuda junction have only a couple of small signboards.
The Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, 1949 is clear that all vehicular traffic proceeding in the same direction on any road should keep to the same side of the road.
This, according to the Convention, should be uniform in each country for all roads. India is a signatory to this Convention.
DH News Service