Commuting on one of the busiest roads in the city — Hosur Road — is set to get easier with the Namma Metro under Phase II. To ensure that metro users do not have to negotiate the notorious traffic to get to stations, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) will build Foot over Bridges (FoBs) across Hosur Road to metro stations. This will be one of the longest set of FOBs in the city.
Six FoBs will be built across the National Highway, which has six (3+3) main lanes and four (2+2) service lanes. The FoBs will be built at Oxford College, Chikkabegur, Basapura Road, Hosa Road and Electronics City – 1 and Electronics City – 2.
Hosur Road, which connects the IT hub of Electronics City to the rest of the city, is considered among the toughest roads to negotiate for pedestrians.
Ajay Seth, Managing Director, BMRCL said that the proposed FoBs will help passengers reach metro stations, which will be located on the extreme right side of the service road.
“To build the FoBs, the BMRCL is in the process of acquiring land (50 metres length and 5 metres wide) on either side of the road. Once metro starts commercial operations, the stations will be used by thousands of people, and providing a safe pathway is crucial. The proposed FoB will be linked to the stations, which are being constructed on the service road,” said an official.
Under Phase II, the BMRCL is building a new line (Yellow Line) from R.V. Road to Bommasandra. After the Silk Board interchange station, the alignment takes a right turn on the service road. From Silk Board to Bommasandra, metro stations will come up at 12 locations.
Initially, the BMRCL had plans to build a subway like it has planned on the Tumakuru Road metro line. However, the plan was dropped after consulting the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The officials feel that building FOBs will be more helpful.
“The city has many subways and most of them are underutilised. There are instances of subways being used by anti-social elements. Instead of building subways, which serve no purpose, it is better to go for FoBs,”an official said.
Building a skywalk or subway for pedestrians has been a long-pending demand of citizens even before work on the metro line began.
A traffic policeman at the junction said, “Pedestrians crossing Hosur Road are at risk, especially at night. In the past, we had written to NHAI to build either a subway or a skywalk. At present, in our jurisdiction, there is a subway only at Singasandra, but it is not sufficient. Providing safe subway or FoBs becomes a necessity, especially once the metro becomes operational as hundreds people would be crossing the road.”
