The Hindu : Residents demand better roads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 03, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Residents demand better roads

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Oct. 2. Sanjayanagar, a fast-growing suburb of Bangalore, has a "main road" which does not have any infrastructure necessary for such a road.

The residents say that the main road is not even a planned thoroughfare and does not fulfil any town planning rules. An old cart track connecting three or four villages became a main road that now has to carry as much traffic as a 100-ft. road in the more planned extensions.

"Sanjayanagar Main Road is not even 50-ft. wide, and at some stretches, barely 30 ft.," the residents point out. Along its length there is a cinema, three private hospitals, shops, the Radha-Krishna Temple frequented by a large numbers of devotees. There are several residential colonies on both sides of the road which they to take to reach downtown.

The senior citizens of Sanjayanagar are most perturbed that they cannot easily walk along the road or safely cross it because there are traffic regulations to slow down the large number of vehicles. Other residents too have suggested that in the absence of properly paved sidewalks, the traffic police can paint yellow lines on either side of the road, demarcating a safe area for pedestrians.

The main road had a number of road humps or speed-breakers that were removed some months ago as part of the programme to have humps of uniform width and height, throughout the City. "Roads which are less than 100 ft. wide have no sidewalks and no signals to regulate vehicle speeds must have speed-breakers along with a number of pedestrian crossings," the residents say.

Since an outlying suburb cannot be expected to have sufficient traffic police personnel, traffic control can be done through traffic wardens and other volunteers, the residents suggest.

Residents' associations have asked the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to use the Land Acquisition Act to immediately to take over a number of temporary structures that prevent the extension of the 80-ft. road planned to connect New BEL Road with Sanjayanagar Main Road. The plan has been pending for over 20 years, they say.

The residents have also asked the BMP to take up work to barricade the pavements for pedestrians along the Geddalhalli Bazaar stretch of the road which is very narrow.

The road at Gangenahalli junction also needed barricades and clear demarcation for traffic going on opposite directions.

The residents also want the autorickshaw stand and bus stand shifted to other locations so that free flow of traffic is not affected and pedestrians feel safer.

"If the Bangalore Police Commissioner and BMP Commissioner jointly visit the area and inspect all the roads and traffic arrangements, they will realise the difficulties we are facing," the residents say.

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