I had previously posted about the problems with travel to BIAL through BMTC. That posted concluded with the problem of heavy traffic through the city until the Hebbal flyover. Please note that no new kind of transport network to the airport, public or private can solve this problem. BIAS from BMTC, Meru Easy Cabs, Airlift -all get stuck in traffic.
Outside the city, in general roads are pretty good, especially the National Highways. BDA will build a peripheral expressway, which may be completed late but is likely to be wide and traffic free. However, it will not help solve the biggest jams within the city.
If we have wide radial roads, only then can traffic reach the ring roads. Most journeys are within the city, perpendicular to the ring roads. In view of this, we need to augment radial road capacity. The only way this can be done is by building elevated highways over major roads which do not have Metro lines. This is not necessarily car centric-they will allow BMTC(or a private operator) to run buses in a much shorter time, increasing the use of public transport. I believe Beijing has an elevated ring road.
This will be very costly, and of necessity involve blocking many roads during construction. It is best that this be done by a private agency (that gets its money back by tolls), instead of the govt. for the following reasons:
- The govt. should not spend thousands of crores on the well off persons in Bangalore, when millions of other fellow citizens do not have even a mud road to their villages.
- Private agencies will want to complete the road as soon as possible so that they can start collecting tolls. This will make the construction faster, unlike the Metro that is unfortunately delayed. Perhaps with an investor friendly government in power(look as the differences over BMIC between DG and BSY), we can attract good expertise.
This will greatly help decongest Bangalore.
Unfortunately, even private projects like BETL can become slow and behind schedule. They may raise tolls/fees in an unconscionable manner, like BIAL. However, even if they are a year or two late, we can still enjoy the benefits for the rest of our lives. If they try to raise fees too much, they will loose business. Besides, the influential lobby of relatively rich people will protest any lack of service as it personally affects them-just look at the lobbying about BIAL. So there is not too much chance that a private contractor will cheat us all .
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