Bengaluru's Sarjapur Road chokes under traffic pressure; cries for revival

Bengaluru: For thousands of commuters who use Sarjapur Road on a daily basis, maneuvering through the traffic snarls is nothing short of a daily punishment. 

Now, a new study has warned that the 17-km stretch between Iblur and Sarjapur Junction — which is seeing high growth and job density — will get worse unless urgent measures are taken.  

Titled ‘Fixing Sarjapura’, the study was prepared by V Ravichandar, member of the Brand Bengaluru committee in collaboration with WRI India, a not-for-profit organisation.

The report — after taking into account the road density and development activities around the 17-km stretch — has proposed a total of 18 short-, medium- and long-term solutions to decongest the road. 

Although the stretch has been designated an “arterial road” by the authorities, the study argues that Sarjapur Road does not function like one due to many minor road crossings and sparse network around it. It also notes that over 19,000 vehicles use the stretch daily, 85% of them private cars and two-wheelers. 

Among the 10 immediate solutions recommended are: providing uniform road widths to eliminate bottlenecks, building service lanes, ensuring pothole-free stretches, and running high-frequency shuttle buses, among others. In the medium and long term, researchers have recommended a new Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), reserving alignments in the master plan to plug missing links, expediting metro and suburban rail. 

The report underlines that Bengaluru’s traffic crisis is not limited to Sarjapur alone. The city has been adding nearly 150 sqkm of built-up area every decade since 1990, but the road density has not kept pace with the development. 

For instance, road density in Sarjapur stands at just 10 km of road per square km of area — compared to 30 km in Vijayanagar and 23 km in Jayanagar, which are older neighbourhoods. In Whitefield, Dommasandra and Doddakannelli, where the growth is currently sharping, road density is even lower, ranging between 8 and 14.5 km. 

The study also said projects like the Peripheral Ring Road and Satellite Town Ring Road — meant to decongest the city – continue to be stuck.