Persistent requests of residents to implement sustainable measures at the busy Iblur junction to ease traffic congestion have finally been paid heed to as the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have decided to make it a signal-free junction on an experimental basis. The decision was taken after a meeting between resident groups and Special Commissioner (Traffic) M.A. Saleem recently.
Along with other traffic lines, the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Sarjapur Road intersect at Iblur junction, making it one of the busiest junctions in the IT belt.
“The plan is to merge the traffic coming from Agara and Sarjapur Road into ORR without causing snarls. We will do this on a trial basis and then bring in other measures,” Mr. Saleem said.
Those who travel from HSR Layout and Agara towards ORR and Sarjapur also pass through the junction. With Sarjapur Road witnessing a lot of commercial and residential development, the traffic choke points are located at several junctions of the road and culminate in a bigger manner at the Iblur junction. The residents had previously proposed a flyover to ease traffic snarls.
“Post 2014, we have seen an extraordinary surge in tech parks coming up between Bellandur and Marathahalli, which pushed residential development to other areas, mostly to Sarjapur Road. Traffic from Electronic City also has a gateway on the road to join Whitefield. School district has also been developed off of Sarjapur Road, which means that children inevitably get caught in congestion. All of these people who come to join ORR are ultimately getting caught up at Iblur junction,” said Mukund Kumar of Iblur Environs Trust.
The residents have three long term demands for the betterment of the traffic situation in the area – make Iblur signal-free junction with a grade separator, fixing the infrastructure of Sarjapur Road and installation of traffic lights at other important junctions like Kaikondarahalli junction, Doddakanahalli junction and Muthanallur junction. However, they said that any kind of attention towards the problem at Iblur junction is viewed as a positive step by them.
“This will have a massive impact as it is the need of the hour given the amount of traffic piling up on Sarjapur Road. From what I understand, the traffic coming from Agara side will rotate under the bridge and come back on to Sarjapur Road and Sarjapur Road traffic itself will be moved 100 feet ahead and then a U-turn will be planned so that it comes back to the ORR side. If it actually works out, it will be a huge benefit to people of Harlur, Kasavanahalli, Doddakanahalli, Kaikondarahalli and others as sometimes we have 2 km of traffic jams just because of Iblur junction,” said Sudarshan Shastry, a member of Bellandur Development Forum (BDF).
