Traffic on Bangalore airport road thrown out of gear

Bangalore: Bellary Road, which not too long ago was remodelled as a seamless “signal free” route between the city and the Bengaluru International Airport, has turned into a chaotic dust bowl punctuated by bottlenecks.
Work on the Rs. 680-crore elevated expressway has eaten up three out of six lanes of National Highway 7, impeding the flow of airport traffic. And worse, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) project has destroyed lakhs of rupees worth of traffic infrastructure, according to the traffic police.
Work began in 2010 on the elevated expressway, which is part of a tolled, signal-free corridor planned between Hebbal flyover and the airport promising a 15-minute commute through the 22-km stretch.
“Underground cables to several of our pelican lights, traffic signals and CCTVs have been damaged by earth movers,” says Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Praveen Sood. “We've estimated the loss at a minimum of Rs. 10 lakh. It is going to take months to replace the damaged traffic infrastructure,” he said.
He pointed to several engineering and design flaws in the project which is now under way on an eight-km stretch starting from Kodigehalli Hunction and heading beyond the Yelahanka Junction.
09/05/11 Divya Gandhi/The Hindu

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Categories: Airports May 2011