There seems to be no end to the agony of hapless commuters on Mysore Road with various utility agencies working at random.
If Metro work between BHEL and Nayandahalli is causing traffic disruptions, laying of an underground electricity cable by Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL) is testing the patience of commuters between Nayandahalli and Rajarajeshwarinagar Arch.
Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. started laying the underground cable for a power sub-station near Rajarajeshwarinagar Arch to another substation off Kwality Biscuits, near Mysore Road-ORR Junction.
The new sub-station is being built as the existing one is being shifted to accommodate the Mysore Road Terminal of Namma Metro.
KPTCL dug the trench metre by metre on a stretch of just one km as a result of which it took almost three months to complete the cable-laying process.
Even after completion of the work, more than half the width of the road over a km has not been re-laid and asphalted.
Frustrated road users, who had endured clouds of dust during the cable-laying process, continue to crawl through the dust even now, rued Venkatachalapathy, who regularly waits for a bus at Nayandahalli.
When it rains, the misery of those like him multiplies. From Nayandahalli to KIMCO Junction (off BHEL), Namma Metro contractors have occupied most of the road with barricades put up on either side of what was a narrow thoroughfare.
The Mysore Road Terminal construction site just after the Mysore Road-ORR Junction and the contractor's concrete mixing plant nearby spawn clouds of dust on normal days and slush during rain.
As if these were not enough, as one crosses KIMCO Junction and travels past Guddadahalli towards the city, one is greeted by felled trees and scattered debris spilling all over the road, this the consequence of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's road widening project.
The process of cutting trees and demolishing buildings has eaten into the available road space between Gopalan Mall (Toll Gate) and the Muslim Burial Ground.
A broken Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board sewer line near the burial ground has been a continuous source of nuisance for over four months now, said Shivashankar M.K., a regular on this stretch.
Mr. Shivashankar ridiculed the attitude of the utility agencies and their apathy towards the common man.
“Can't the utility agencies execute the work in a more civilised manner with least inconvenience to the common man. Is this the price we have to pay to see development,” he asked.
