Eight-lane Okalipuram corridor will take another year to be completed

BBMP administrator Gaurav Gupta and commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad have directed officials to complete the eight-lane Okalipuram Junction-Fountain Circle corridor at the earliest.

Accompanied by BBMP planning section officials, Gupta and Prasad inspected the pending works of the three underpasses on Monday and held discussions with the railway officials.

In 2014, the BBMP joined forces with the railways to begin the eight-lane corridor project at a cost of Rs 103 crore. Though all the other works are over, work on the underpasses on the Bengaluru-Tumakuru and Bengaluru-Chennai sections are pending. Railway officials assured Gupta and Prasad that the Bengaluru-Tumakuru underpass work will be completed by December, while work on the Bengaluru-Chennai section is beset by sewage water and delay in shifting of the cables by KPTCL. They said it will take a year to complete the work.

The BBMP top brass directed the officials to install sewage pipes for the City Railway Station and hold discussions with BWSSB and KPTCL to shift the cable and hand over the place to the railways at the earliest. Sewage from the City Railway Station collects in the Okalipuram underpass, forcing traffic police to block the way. Motorists ride up to the Platform Road Junction and take a diversion. The six-year-old project has only added to the traffic woes.

Shivananda flyover

Gupta and Prasad later inspected the delayed Shivananda flyover, started in 2017 at a cost of Rs 40 crore. Officials attributed the delay to the challenges in acquiring a 600 sqm land between Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce and Racecourse Circle for road widening.

Officials informed the BBMP chiefs that since the state has given permission for the acquisition, the flyover will be completed by March 2021.

The two officials also inspected the Rs 142-crore signal-free corridor on West of Chord Road between Navarang Junction and National Public School, directing the contractor to complete it at the earliest.