Traffic on the
Hebbal flyover has become a major concern with the number of vehicles only
increasing by the week.
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| Construction Work at Hebbal flyover |
Already 23,000 CPUs pass through it during peak hour and the projection for next year is at 32,000 CPUs. With the recent news that the Kempegowda International Airport registered 26.91 million passengers in 2017-18 and grew at 17.6 %, the road to the airport will only get further choked.
It has already left
residents of Sahakarnagar, Vidyaranyapura, Kodigehalli, Hebbal-Kempapura,
Coffee Board Layout, Jakkur, Kogilu, Yelahanka and beyond fuming as it takes 40
minutes plus just to get across the flyover.
The traffic police
have diverted buses from Esteem Mall to go through Hebbal junction below, but they
come back atop the flyover through the first loop, says Devaraj Gowda,
President of Amruthnagar Residents Welfare Association. “Police have also
posted a constable on top of the flyover to regulate traffic coming from ORR
onto the flyover to go towards the city,” he adds.
All this is scary
statistics as the Hebbal junction is the only route to the KIA. The second
entrance to the airport through Hennur cross and Mylanahalli is not yet ready
as parts of the road have been dug up and the PWD is yet to complete work on
the road leading upto the airport wall. “If this road is used by those going to
Bangalore east and south, hundreds of cabs and buses will bypass Hebbal,” says
V. Srinath, a cab owner.
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| Rig and Drilling machine at Work on Hebbal Flyover |
The state
government has sanctioned a new loop towards the city on the Hebbal flyover but
this project is yet to gather speed. “It is taking a deep curve away from the
lake making it one of the most expensive additions to existing infrastructure
in the city,” says a BDA official.
The reason is a
National Green Tribunal ruling that any new structures built along water bodies
have to have a buffer of 75 metres.
The Hebbal trumpet
flyover built by the BDA in 2003 is the only gateway to north Bangalore and the
international airport currently. It has a CPU of 23,000 and a projected CPU of
32,000 next year. “If we do not plan and execute it now, there will be further
delays. So we planned it in such a way that the NGT will not object,” says the
officer.
The project,
estimated at Rs 88 crore, is also costing much more due to the extra curve it
is taking. Currently only drilling work for soil testing is happening and the
construction that one witnessed was a thick wall upon which the city's founder
Kempe Gowda's statue has been placed.
This new loop
starts a little after Esteem Mall, takes a sharp left and the down ramp has
been designed to join the highway a few metres before Bangalore Baptist
hospital. The question remains when it is going to be completed?
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