Trials and errors: Traffic police’s efforts to ease congestion yield mixed results in Bengaluru

Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have been trying out various permutations and combinations to ease traffic at various traffic-dense junctions across the city.

Some of the trials have surely eased traffic, while other such experimentations at junctions have not yielded desired results.

Traffic police in the north division did some trials earlier this week at the CMTI Junction on Tumakuru Road.

Sachin Ghorpade, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic-North), said that the signals were reduced from three phases to two. A U-turn was created near the third pillar from SRS Junction. Vehicles from FTI Circle were made to take a left near Modern Bread Factory, a right near ITI College, and then a left near Ramana Jyothi Apartment.

However, this arrangement hit some roadblocks. “We had to drop the experiment because heavy vehicles coming from Mysore Road on the Outer Ring Road could not take a turn at Modern Bread Factory or a U-turn later because of a lack of turning radius,” said Ghorpade. They are assessing the situation and are looking to try other measures to ease the traffic congestion.

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In the east division, Kala Krishnaswamy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic-East) noted that the KR Puram Road has been extended on both sides in collaboration with the BBMP and BMRCL, and bus bays have been created on both sides to free up the main carriageway. “Travel time has fallen by at least 10 minutes because of this,” she said.

U-turns at Garudacharpalya, Hoodi, Sumadhura Junction, Graphite India Junction, Rajapalya Junction, and Phoenix Mall signal have been closed and an immediate left at Marathahalli has been allowed for vehicles coming from Kadubeesanahalli on the Outer Ring Road. They have also changed the phases of signals at Hope Farm Junction from four to three, reducing pile-ups by more than a kilometre, she said.

Traffic police in the south division have already implemented changes at the Bellandur junction to ease congestion. They are planning some additional junction improvements in other traffic-dense junctions in the division.

Similarly, the traffic police west division is planning a series of infrastructure changes to ease traffic, including widening a lane on Mysore Road and shaving off the walls of a stormwater drain projecting on the road.