Nimhans campus gets a high dose of dust

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s work to replace rusty and corroded pipes may ensure steady water supply to residents of Lakkasandra and Wilson Garden. But right now, it is choking Nimhans as vehicles coming from the Dairy Circle flyover are being diverted through its campus since Tuesday morning.

The road inside the Nimhans complex has literally been turned into a “temporary Hosur Road”, as a visitor jockingly put it. The increased presence of vehicles has added to   noise pollution in the area.

“It is true, besides hospital vehicles, some private vehicles in the neighbourhood used this stretch. But now the road is jam packed with vehicles, most of them mercilessly honking as they move ahead,” said Susan Sara Cheriyan, a research fellow at Nimhans. 

According to one of the hospital visitors, the campus now resembles a busy commercial street.

 “We will have to put with this till the pipeline replacement work is over. We cannot even blame the traffic police. They are left with no choice either,” said Ramesh Shetty, a visitor.

The medical staffers, including the director of Nimhans, were unavailable for comment.

However, one of the medical professionals from the causality care centre said on the condition of anonymity that although the issue did not directly affect his ward, the atmosphere of the health care centre had become unhealthy.

“In a rapidly developing city like this, such hurdles are natural. But the traffic police could have diverted a good amount of vehicles through other roads allowing only hospitals vehicles and some private vehicles

to use this road. This way, noise and air pollution could have been avoided,” said Cheriyan.

People were desperately waiting on the sidewalks for the traffic to clear to cross the road. One security guard positioned there said this was normal here even before the pipeline work started.

The pipeline work will take another 20 days to complete. BWSSB chairman PB Ramamurthy, who visited the Hosur Road to inspect progress of work on Thursday, said the work would be carried out in six phases over the 3-km stretch from Wilson Garden 10th Cross to Dairy Circle.