Southern States
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Karnataka-Bangalore
A realtor's mission to decongest City roads
By B.S. Ramesh
BANGALORE, DEC. 11. He is not an educated man. Nor is he rich. Yet he has the good of the City at heart, and he has striven to make it a more liveable place. He is Mr. B.G. Sridhar, a realtor and member of the Ratna Traffic Planning Group.
Mr. Sridhar helped conceptualise the Bangalore Central Area Traffic Management Project (one-way system) which was implemented by the Bangalore City Police under the aegis of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). Every day, for months together, Mr. Sridhar could be seen on the roads along with some other citizens of the City, planning and plotting the movement of vehicles and the steps needed to ensure smooth traffic.
He says that to pursue his mission to make the streets more motorable and less congested, he has had to spent from his own pocket. However, there were other concerned citizens who were eager to assist in the implementation of the concept of unidirectional traffic, involving the creation of linked one-way roads.
Perhaps, his only reward was the unstinted cooperation he received from the Bangalore City Traffic Police. Recalling his association with the police, he says that when he first discussed the traffic management plan with them in July 2000, it was met with scepticism. However, before long, they realised that it was feasible.
In a few months, the idea metamorphosed into the ``Bangalore Central Traffic Management Project''. The project was evaluated and presented to the stake-holders of the BATF, including the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).
The project, when introduced on August 26, 2001, involved a combination of one-way traffic, synchronised signals, and passovers, in conjunction with facilities for pedestrians. The system was to be integrated with the proposed flyover system.
The area covered under the one-way system was bound by Rajajinagar Entrance in the West, Ulsoor in the East, South End Circle in the South, and Mehkri Circle in the North. This covered about 100 km. of roads and nearly as many road intersections.
Mr. Sridhar says the congestion on roads that were recently made one-way stretches can be removed if the project is implemented ``in totality''. With a little more scientific planning, the City can get rid of most of its signal lights without causing inconvenience to pedestrians, he adds.
On their part, the police say that the plan to introduce the one-way rule was based on data available from studies conducted by the Central Road Research Institute, Rail International Ltd., and other organisations.
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