Commute unbearable, biz hit due to never-ending work at J C Road

Bengaluru: If you are a commuter travelling from southern Bengaluru towards Majestic and the CBD, you will first be greeted by copious amounts of dust, debris, noise and traffic snarls on JC Road. 

The 1.1-km major arterial road that houses hundreds of local businesses, especially those related to vehicle spare parts and car accessories, has been undergoing a facelift over the past few months. Although the work to white-top the stretch began last December, slow progress has left vehicle users and business owners reeling. 

Earthmovers have been digging up the sides of the road to lay both BWSSB water supply and wastewater management pipes and BBMP stormwater drain pipelines. 

When DH visited the thoroughfare on Saturday, an earthmover could be seen clearing out plastic and muck from a drain on the left side of the road. Several pipes remained piled on the other side. 

Local business owners have complained that this constant digging up has affected business, with little room for people to move. One such owner had begun levelling cement and jelly stones outside his store. Another store, which had about four to five feet of debris piled in front of it, was shuttered. 

“The owner arrived in the morning to see this JCB in front of his shop. He just told his seven employees to go home and closed the shop, halting business for a few days,” said Hidayath Ali, the owner of an auto accessories store nearby. He saw just one customer on Saturday as opposed to at least five daily. 

A worker at another store alleged that none of the businesses was informed about work duration. “This has just been going on for months now; the dust and noise are unbearable. There is no point asking any questions to the engineers. The answer is always ‘as soon as possible’,” said an elderly man sitting in a small car stereo studio. 

Traffic police deployed to manage congestion note the constant choc-a-block nature of vehicles throughout the day, with smaller bylanes bearing the brunt of confused and agitated drivers inching past one another. 

“There is no alternative to this road for most people coming from Jayanagar and JP Nagar, and the roads leading to this stretch are all one-ways,” said one officer, while the other just pointed at his mask and muddy shirtsleeves. 

Construction leaves vehicles jostling for space on a narrow patch. 

Cut-off box - ‘Aim to complete by May-end’
A BBMP executive engineer overseeing the project said that the pipe laying had been completed on the left side of the road and the other side was expected to be completed by May 15. 
“White-topping will begin after that and we aim to complete it by the end of May. The major reason delays occurred was because of heavy traffic on that road throughout the day. Lots of cables were also found during the initial digging which took time to clear” she said.