Hundreds of members of residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) gathered at Esteem Mall junction on Ballari Road on Saturday afternoon to hold a demonstration supporting the proposed steel flyover. As a counterpoint to the #SteelFlyoverBeda protest, a section of citizens launched #SteelFlyoverBeku campaign.
A majority of the citizens who came out in support of the campaign reside in localities such as Sahakarnagar, Kodigehalli, Kempapura, Shivarama Karanth Nagar, Jakkur, and Yelahanka.
The residents claimed they would benefit from the flyover. They argued that the flyover would ease traffic congestion on the busy corridor. “Build the flyover, save fuel”, “No politics. Think development” were some of the slogans that the protesters had in reply to those opposing the project.
Traffic snarls
Narasimhaiah, a resident of Kodigehalli who participated in the Saturday’s demonstration, said a 9-km commute to the city from Esteem Mall junction would take nearly two hours. On the other hand, even though the distance to the Kempegowda International Airport from the junction is around 21 km, travel time is less than half an hour, he argued. “This clearly shows that the road stretch from the city to Esteem Mall needs to be fixed. It’s not just airport travel. We suffer every day commuting to work and home because of traffic snarls,” he added.
Devarajappa, president of Sahakarnagar RWA, alleged that none of the citizens protesting against the flyover project was from north Bengaluru. “We are the ones who are suffering owing to traffic snarls every day. People sitting in south Bengaluru cannot decide on whether we should have a flyover or not,” he said.
Hundreds of students from two educational institutions in Kempapura also came out in support of the project. “We want the traffic mess at Kempapura Cross to be solved. We have already lost many students in accidents at the junction and it is a Herculean task to cross the road. The skywalk is yet to materialise. We hope the steel flyover will reduce the load at Kempapura Cross,” said Mithun S., an undergraduate student.
M. Devaraj of Kempapura RWA said residents had decided to meet BDA engineers on Monday to discuss with them how the traffic congestion and pedestrian safety issue at Kempapura Cross could be resolved. “We are planning to propose an underpass too,” he said, and argued that the steel flyover was necessary to solve the traffic snarls the area sees regularly.
Yelahanka RWA representatives, who participated in the demonstration, released a statement supporting the steel flyover as a short-term solution to decongest traffic on the corridor.
“However, the only long-term solution will be metro connectivity. Unlike other areas, north Bengaluru has not received enough attention in terms of providing metro connectivity,” the statement said.
People sitting in south Bengaluru cannot decide on whether we should have a flyover or not
Devarajappa,president of Sahakarnagar RWA