Pedestrians risk their lives while illegally crossing the broken Gubbi Thotadappa Road divider.
By Arghyadeep Dutta
Chetan, a student, who travels from Ullal to Government Polytechnic College in Whitefield, has to cross the Gubbi ThotadappaRoad (GT Road) by jumping over the broken road divider. Risking his life daily, Chetan is fortunate that he has not met with an accident yet.
Every day, hundreds of people put their lives in danger by jaywalking and crossing through a broken divider in front of Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station.
Y. Harikrishnan, owner of a travel agency near the City Railway Junction and overlooking the broken divider, said, “Daily four to five jaywalkers end up injuring themselves. Unaware of the speeding cars approaching from both the sides, the unbalanced people land up in front of the cars.”
Most jaywalkers do not use the subway, only 200m away from the broken divider, which connects the City Junction Railway Station to the Majestic Bus Terminus. “The subway is filthy and full of vendors. It will take an extra five minutes for me to cross through the subway than crossing directly,” said Chetan.
However, after he managed to narrowly escape an accident, Chetan decided to avoid jumping over the broken divider again and would try boarding an earlier bus. Though police can impose fine for jaywalking under Karnataka Police Act 1963, Section 92, Mr. Krishnamurthy, traffic police, posted at TCM Royan Road Crossing, near the spot, said, “We have to maintain this busy crossing, and that spot does not even come under Upparpet’s jurisdiction.”
Crossing by ignoring Police Barricade
Prasanna Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of BBMP, West zone said, “BBMP is building a new footbridge to connect Majestic Bus Terminus 2 with KSR Railway Station, and it will open within a month. After that BBMP will decide about the broken divider on GT Road. Till then police needs to control the jaywalkers’ menace and penalise them.”
However, Dr. Anil Kumar P. Grampurohit, Traffic Inspector and Planner at Traffic Mangement said, “It is not possible to look into every corner. Bangalore Police has put barricades to prevent jaywalking, but people still ignore it.”
M. N. Sreehari, the traffic expert, said, “This part of the city lacks coordination in the transport system. More than 20 to 30 lakh people from different parts travel through Majestic.”. He added, “The law for penalising jaywalkers is only Rs. 50, so people do not bother to follow traffic rules. BTRAC and BBMP should work hand in hand to stop this. KSRTC should put barricades to direct people towards the subway, so that they don’t jump over dividers. It should be a collective responsibility.”
