Aero Show:Alternative roads being readied to avoid jams

Alternative approach roads are being readied to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) for Aero India 2019, scheduled for Feb 20-24 at the Yelahanka Air Force station.

To reduce traffic jams in the area, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP ) is redoing the old tarred road from Bagalur to Begur, which will serve as an alternative route to the KIA. At the moment, the workers are covering a distance of 2 km every day.

Work on an additional parking area inside the KIA for two-wheelers is also underway, which will be completed soon. On the other hand, the stretch between Mylenahalli to the New Airport road is also under progress, which was started over a year ago. This is expected to be finished soon as well.

Rusting streetlight poles along the road are being removed to be replaced with new working ones. “At least one accident in a month on this road is normal in the absence of streetlights and rash driving. Women are scared to walk on this road during the night. But now I hope the problem will end as the streetlights are being fixed,” Kiran S, a student and resident of Bagalur said.

Though an alternative road plan was prepared almost 12 years ago, thanks to Aero India 2019, the officials are acting at least now.

“Traffic diversion is mainly for the air show to reduce traffic on the airport road. The work will be done by this month, so that the vehicles carrying visitors can experience a smooth ride to the airport,” Shankarappa, a junior engineer told DH.

“Today morning we were told to remove the old streetlight poles from Bagalur to fix the new ones. We will remove all the old poles till the end of the double road, and new streetlights will be fixed very soon,” a worker said.