The work on the expansion of the Hebbal flyover to make it three lanes has stopped. Passengers are complaining of heavy traffic congestion.
If you are thinking of driving through the Hebbal junction think again. You could reach your destination by foot by the time you drive across the junction. The junction remains a bottleneck of traffic. Yet Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is unable to complete a project that is running almost a decade late
The work of the much awaited additional ramp of the Hebbal flyover, which was started last year, has been put on hold again. The proposed ramp was supposed to start from Esteem mall and end at Baptist hospital in Hebbal.
Rico Mathews, a resident of the area, said that the congestion in the area is too much and it takes around 10-20 minutes to cross from one side to another. “The new ramp was supposed to ease our problems, but the construction has been in an on and off mode for years.”
K.N. Vijayananda, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of BDA said that they have started the work last year. There have been some issues with getting permission from the railways, and with a shortage of funds. He said the work has been stalled for some time and will resume as soon as they get clearance.
Srinivas P, who owns an autorickshaw and often travels in the area, said that BDA started the project to make the third ramp for the Hebbal flyover a couple of years back. BDA even made a big pillar near the KempeGowda Park but did not complete the project.
He added, “I do not think the project has much potential as there are too many departments involved in the area. Even the service road is a mess, government need to look for some solution.”
The work on the service road near the Hebbal bus stop was started in January last year. Traffic on the service road was diverted for some time, but due to excess traffic on the flyover it was later resumed.
Hanumanth Reddy, Joint director of Town planning at BDA said, “The old pillar which was constructed for the earlier plan in the forest won’t be much help. The new design uses a different approach, where loops will run parallel to the existing lanes. While the older design had road loops which started near the forest and then joined the existing lanes. The earlier plan was coming in between the expansion of Namma Metro that is why we had to change the construction plan.”
The highway narrows down to two lane structure at Hebbal junction, due to which the area experiences heavy traffic congestion. The BDA proposed an extra ramp to ease the congestion in 2015. In 2019 the project was stalled due to objections by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).
Vikram Bhatt, an Urban planner who works in Bangalore said, “Government should look for a different alternative than an additional line to the flyover. A tunnel would solve the problem and will be a permanent solution. As the BDA is complaining that they don’t have funds, one should ask where the money goes. If they are incapable of acquiring land and fund for the project they should go for Build-Operate-Lease-Transfer (BOLT) or Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model. Many National highways are made under such models. Building a tunnel will be possible under such partnership for the five kilometre stretch.”
