With a focus on decongesting the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday plans to construct more flyovers in Bengaluru.
New Flyovers for Bengaluru
In its annual budget, Bengaluru’s civic body has offered the construction of new flyovers in the city to reduce traffic. The BBMP also said that these new flyovers will help to ease bottlenecks and enhance the traffic flow at busy junctions.
For this project, the civic body has allocated a whopping Rs 1,650 crore for building 16 flyovers, including seven new ones, in different parts of Bengaluru. The BBMP will borrow Rs 770 crore from the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) to fund most of the flyovers. The government will provide most of the remaining money.
The new flyovers that are proposed in Bengaluru by BBMP (Source: Hindustan Times)
- Flyover at Gokula road near the busy Mathikere turn. This flyover will be built at the cost of Rs. 40 crores.
- Flyover at ORR-pipeline junction at Jalahalli. This one will cost the BBMP another Rs. 40 crores.
- Flyover on Mekhri circle underpass at Jayamahal road, which is going to cost Rs. 65 crores to the civic body.
- New flyover at the Sadashivanagar police station circle. It will cost Rs. 40 crores to BBMP.
Other constructions
According to Deccan Herald, some of the old proposals also received additional funds including the construction of an underbridge near the Yeshwantpur railway station, grade separators at Wilson Garden, Yelahanka, Hoodi Junction, ITPL Big-Bazaar Junction, Hope Farm, Minerva Junction, and Suranjandas Junction on Old Madras Road.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said, “There has been a cost escalation for nine projects that were approved in the previous financial year. An additional Rs 965 crore is needed to finish these projects.”
The civic body has also set aside another Rs 20 crore for the maintenance of 42 existing flyovers and 28 underbridges; Rs 70 crore will be spent on widening Bannerghatta Road.
Speaking on the plenty of funds for flyovers, Shreya Gadepalli, managing trustee of The UrbanWorks Institute, stated that trying to solve traffic congestion with flyovers was like treating cancer with band-aids.
“Better public transport, not wide roads, and flyovers, solve the mobility problem. Metro alone won’t do. We need a world-class bus service to complement it — more buses, better buses, and dedicated lanes so that buses can transport people swiftly and seamlessly across the city,” she said.
