Suranjandas underpass offers little relief to Bengaluru commuters

The newly constructed underpass at Suranjandas junction is unlikely to reduce travel time on the HAL Old Airport Road, especially for commuters heading towards core Bengaluru and the IT hub.

Despite the presence of four grade separators on the 13-km stretch, vehicles tend to queue up at multiple junctions, particularly near the Marathahalli bridge, Kundalahalli underpass, and Isro junction.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai inaugurated the Rs 19-crore underpass at the intersection of Old Airport Road and Suranjandas Road.

The BBMP took five years to complete the 267-metre-long grade separator, which involved property acquisition and cutting down over a dozen full-grown trees.

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Commuting through the new underpass may be easy, but a few slow spots on Old Airport Road have bottlenecks. Some of them have traffic lights to regulate the traffic flow, but others do not have lights and may not always have enough traffic police presence.

After the inauguration of the Suranjandas junction, traffic congestion significantly increased at the intersection of Isro junction and Wind Tunnel Road. The BBMP initially had plans to construct an underpass at this junction to ease traffic flow, but engineers struggled to acquire the properties, which prompted the civic body to temporarily abandon the plan and divert the grant.

Although vehicles find hurdles along the stretch near Yemalur junction, traffic signals ensure their smooth flow. But the absence of traffic signals has heavily congested Old Airport Road, which connects Doddanekundi and Marathalli village, and the volume of traffic is harder for one policeman to handle.

DH reality check

During the reality check, DH also found extreme traffic congestion at Tulsi theatre near Marathahalli bridge. Hundreds of vehicles heading towards the IT hub from South Bengaluru took a U-turn on Old Airport Road, halting traffic for a kilometer.

Construction of the metro on the Outer Ring road right below the underpass has caused the blockage.

On Thursday, vehicles were also seen clogged on the newly constructed Kundalahalli underpass.

Clement Jayakumar, secretary of the Mahadevapura Task Force, stated that the traffic issues experienced on the Kundalahalli underpass and Marathahalli bridge are temporary.

“A pipeline work has eaten away a full lane near the underpass. The work is nearly complete and we will see smooth flow of traffic in about 10 days,” he said.

As for traffic congestion near the Marathahalli bridge, he said senior traffic officers, including Dr M A Saleem, Special Commissioner (Traffic), visited the spot to solve it.

“After the metro work blocked the service road on the ORR, more vehicles have started using Old Airport Road. We expect the metro work to go on till April. Until then, there is a plan to provide a structure to restrict the entry of goods vehicles from ORR to Old Airport Road,” he said.