Goraguntepalya road overbridge set to open for traffic tomorrow

Four years in the making, the Goraguntepalya Road Overbridge (RoB) along the Outer Ring Road is all set for a formal launch on January 6. Designed to decongest the ORR, the project will also ease traffic on Tumakuru Road, just in time for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event kicking off on Saturday.

Built jointly by Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) and South Western Railway, the RoB passes over two rail routes rendering the railway gates redundant. Frequent closures of the gates triggers massive traffic pile-ups on the busy Ring Road. The traffic police have often been at loggerheads with Railways, insisting that closure frequency cannot be increased.

Perennially stuck at the gates in kilometre-long queues, ORR commuters are bound to heave a huge sigh of relief. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expected to inaugurate the partially completed RoB on January 6, R Hithendra, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, said.

Two-way traffic will be allowed on the RoB, only one ramp of which is complete. SWR is expected to ready the second ramp soon.

During gate closures - at least 20 times a day - the traffic pile-up extends all the way up to Tumakuru Road, a small stretch of which is part of the Ring Road.

The commute from BEL Circle on ORR to Goraguntepalya now takes about an hour. The RoB is expected to make travelling on this stretch a breeze and reduce congestion at Goraguntepalya by over 50%.

This, as traffic police officials point out, will benefit delegates heading to the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, where the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event is scheduled to be held from January 7 to 9.

Once the railway gates underneath the bridge are permanently closed, train halts at Yeshwantpur railway station are likely to be reduced to three minutes. Currently, Tumakuru-bound trains are not allowed to proceed from the first three platforms till the gates are closed. Incoming trains are stuck at Chikkabanavara station.

People advocating the suburban rail project say trains from the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna city railway station can now chug into Yeshwantpur station at smaller intervals, decongesting tracks at the crowded city station.