Nearly seven years after it was taken up, the road over the major drain of the Vrushabhavati Valley has been thrown open to traffic. This has helped ease congestion to some extent on Mysore Road that is witnessing a slew of infrastructure projects.
According to a senior official from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the bridge can now be used by residents of Vijayanagar and RPC Layout to go directly to Mysore Road, near the Gali Anjaneya Temple. They had to earlier come to KIMCO Junction on Mysore Road via Deepanjali Nagar.
Though the civic body issued the work order in 2005, the work was taken up in 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs. 20.83 crore. The deadline for the project, which was entrusted to NPCC, was postponed several times, thereby escalating the project cost to Rs. 30 crore.
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The bridge has been designed to have clockwise vehicular movement, thereby easing traffic on Mysore Road.
The official conceded that the bridge should have had one-in-10 slope (i.e., one foot slope for every 10 ft). This would have taken the bridge till the mosque on Mysore Road, opposite Gali Anjaneya Temple. “We were forced to alter the plans following resistance from the people,” the official said.
However, this created a bottleneck near the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation’s Satellite Bus Stand on Mysore Road.
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The road between Gali Anjaneya Temple and the satellite bus stand is very narrow. Chaos and confusion was witnessed here minutes after traffic was allowed on the bridge.
The official said that there was a proposal to provide a down ramp to the bus stand. “We asked KSRTC to pay Rs. 10 crore for it. They refused and the proposal was dropped,” he added.
Another problem before the BBMP was the proposed flyover from NICE Road at this point till Sirsi Circle to be constructed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise.
“The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the State government. However, as that work has not been taken up, the BBMP could only take up road-level works,” the official said.
The official added that the BBMP had now proposed to take up the reconstruction of the old bridge near Gali Anjaneya Temple.
“Based on the recommendations of the Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, the bridge will be reconstructed, as the vents are small. We are proposing to construct a semi-circle arch bridge with pre-cast elements here,” he added.
Photo caption corrected for error .