Bengaluru
Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said that a decision has been made to constitute an authority to manage traffic density in Bengaluru, a city that has over 10 million vehicles for a population of around 12 million.
Bommai, after a meeting with Union minister for road transport & highways Nitin Gadkari, said that a bill to this effect will be tabled in the upcoming session of the state legislature and then implement the act.
“Works will be going on by departments like National Highways Authority of India, BBMP, BDA, BMRDA and PWD, and most of the problems will be resolved if a comprehensive master plan is formulated. Along with this, railways and metro will be made part of the authority for the traffic management in Bengaluru and the surrounding places,” Bommai said.
The statements come at a time when Bengaluru’s traffic has gained notoriety globally and topped the list of the world’s worst traffic in 2020.
According to a 2019 report by Netherlands based global provider of navigation, traffic and map products, TomTom, Bengaluru beat 415 other cities in 57 countries to emerge on top of this list.
Since then, traffic has become worse on account of several factors, including higher dependence on private transport due to fear of contracting the novel coronavirus which causes Covid-19, poor connectivity, difficulty to move through pot-hole laden and poor quality dug up roads and more recently, the water-logging that added to time spent on the roads.
“Bengaluru takes the top spot this year with drivers in the southern Indian city expecting to spend an average of 71% extra travel time stuck in traffic,” TomTom said in the ninth edition of its report.
The live tracking system indicated that there were 291 traffic jams currently amounting to a total length of 145.7 kms in Bengaluru.
According to the report, Bengalureans spent 243 hours in traffic or 10 days and three hours. The report said that at the same time, Bengalureans could have planted 244 trees, watched 215 episodes of Game of Thrones or watched 139 games of football.
Delays in completion of mega-projects like Metro, Sub-urban rail and stagnation of bus fleets have also contributed to increase in private transport usage.
“Along with this, Railways and metro will be made part of the authority for the traffic management in Bengaluru and the surrounding places. A three-day ‘Manthan’ convention was started on Thursday to discuss the existing National Road Transport system under the chairmanship of Gadkari. Along with this, a meeting on Bengaluru Roads and traffic density was also held. The co-operation and coordination of the Government of India was sought. As several national highways pass through inside Bengaluru City the construction of road was very important to solve the problem of traffic density,” Bommai said.
Multiple agencies in Bengaluru like the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, the city’s civic body), traffic police and others have come up with short-term solutions to decongest the city.
“It has been planned to build a railway station at Byappanahalli by using the multi-purpose pillar construction technology that was useful for metro, flyover and road. The extent of land acquisition will be less if they use this new technology of a single pillar for the three-level transport system. A plan will be formulated after discussing it with international experts,” the chief minister said.