The Bangalore Traffic police have been receiving brickbats for the traffic woes in the city for years. But few know how they try to cope with the engineering folly of the corporation.
This story is not known to the public because the narrator happens to be the much-abused police.
The Bangalore Traffic police have been receiving brickbats for the traffic woes in the city for years. But few know how they try to cope with the engineering folly of the Palike. “Every day,” said one harried policeman, “we pray for enough strength to bear the pressure.”
The city traffic police have been trying to clear the unscientific or defective engineering that have resulted in a chakravyuha in many places. There are at least 40,000 junctions in the city, of which 1,000 have engineering defects and do not serve their purpose. Of these 1,000 junctions, 40 are beyond hope.
Perennial traffic and accidents are a common sight here for which even the best policing brains could not beat the defects.
Additional commissioner of police (traffic and security) Praveen Sood said that of the 40 worst intersections, JSS Junction, JBS Junction, BSK Bus Stop Junction, Lalbagh West Gate junction, Mayo Hall Junction and Krishna Floor Mill Junction were redesigned between 2007 and 2010 at a cost of `4 crore under the B-Track project.
“We have decided to redesign more junctions at places such as Hains junction, Trinity Circle and CMH-BMSri 100ft Road, in 2011. The project is estimated to cost Rs2 crore. We have tried to streamline vehicle flow at these junctions by giving free left and free rights,” he said.
The traffic officials had written to the Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to take up redesigning work of these junctions urgently. Citing one technical flaw, they said the high mast light at the centre of these junctions was affecting free traffic flow.
Earlier, at some junctions, vehicles have to wait for long resulting in traffic snarls in adjoining lanes and roads. After they were redesigned, the junctions are free of traffic jams as signal time duration had been reduced.
Sood said, Lalbagh West Gate was one of the most jammed junctions. The traffic police have redesigned it and changed the signal timing from 250 seconds to 150 seconds. The junction now enjoys free traffic flow. Same is the case with Krishna Floor Mill Junction where the signal timing has been reduced from 220 seconds to 150 seconds.
The Karnataka Land Army Corporation, a facilitating agency for state government to take up construction activities of government projects, is in charge of redesigning the 40 junctions.
They are now working at Hains junction where traffic flow is the heaviest with vehicles from Thanisandra, Tannery Road, Ramamurthynagar and Hennur converging here. Compounding the traffic problem is the high mast light installed at a wrong spot.
“We have written a letter to the BBMP to relocate the high mast light at the junction. After that we will complete the redesign work”, a traffic official said.
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