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Upcoming flyover on ORR at BTM - short sighted?

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Its flyover time again. BBMP has invited bids for "Consultancy Services For Preparation Of DPR For The Construction Of Grade Separator At The Junction Of Ring Road And 16th Main BTM Layout". (Also see:RFP for this flyover). So once this is done, those heading towards Electronics City, instead of waiting at 16th main signal, they will all wait longer at the silk board signal. And in the evenings, the signal under Jaideva circle flyover will see twice or thrice the amount of waiting traffic it currently does.

Think of it, hasn't Jaideva circle flyover itself created the need for another one at 16th main? Next, ask those going towards E-city, did Jaideva circle flyover save them any time? What I commonly hear is no. Now, once this new flyover is ready, in the direction of Hosur Road, you will have significant pile-ups at choke points (0,1,2,3) marked on the map.

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Ad-hoc and short sighted flyovers rarely help over long term. Mr Subramanya, on one hand, you are doing so good with the idea of creating under-passes and over passes to create a sizable length corridor on one single road (Bellary Road, using magic boxes). On the other hand, this seems like a short sighted thing - a flyover to get rid of just one signal. The way to manage the traffic is by
  • "streamlining" traffic via more signals. Basically, use lots of small dams to manage the flow. Trying to get rid of all the dams will only increase "turbulence" as our roads aren't wide enough, and thanks to poor enforcement, there is significant "entropy" on roads. You do this by adding more traffic signals, synchronizing signals, and reducing wait times on them, reducing "friction" on the edges of the road so that time taken to travel from one signal to another is reduced, and obviously, investing in public transport
  • Not to say that flyovers etc are not required, but the long term goal should be to create a corridor of sizable length. Corridors must "segregate" long distance and short haul traffic. Without a specific plan like that, you will never be able to raise the average speed of commute. How do you acheive this "segregation"? By having fewer cuts on the median, by creating identified local haul roads in all major areas, by creating stricter norms for setback and parking for business and apartment complexes that come up on identified corridors.

In the case of this flyover, your Rs 50 crores (guestimated cost of this flyover) are probably better spent on:

  • Augmenting the roads that connect Banerghatta road with Hosur Road south of ORR and North of NICE PRR
  • By creating a park and Ride center either at Dairy Circle and/or at near silk board junction, and having 10 minute services to E-city from these centers.
  • By simply adding more buses to the Volvo routes on this stretch. 50 crore will get you more than 50 modern buses (why assume Volvo is the only option!?)

However, should you persist with this flyover, please don't plan this in an "island" fashion. We will like to see the traffic flow plan for expected choke points. Will you be closing the medians on the road all the way from 16th main to Hosur Road? If yes, then will there be safe spots for pedestrians to cross over? How will te local traffic cross over ORR - by coming all the way to 16th main?

ORR in this stretch (BTM Layout, Jayanagar) has no future as a corridor. Reason? This road runs too deep through established commercial and residential areas. That is the reason, I think, CTTP recommends a mass transit option on this stretch (mono rail). How will this new flyover fit with that suggestion?

Comments

tsubba's picture

hoola huppi

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alrighty, you are talking fiziks and thermodynamic entropy and doc is beginning to talk about psychological entropy. between you guys we are about to cover some serious science on traffic. if we also get some heads around the latent stochastic entropy of traffic flow(the true natural entropy of the traffic flow, which can only be understood, and never be eliminated) we will be well on our way to offering master of traffic studies degrees. and the thought of that calls for a hoola huppi
blrsri's picture

Park & Ride LRT/monorail instead?

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148 users have liked.

Seeing the traffic that goes on this stretch..its mostly the ones heading to EC which leads to congestion all the time..to reiterate...these people heading to work dont need to use their personal vehicles or  even busses..all thats needed is a train like LRT..as silkboard has said earlier..we need a decent park and ride system where we can park our vehicles and ride the public transport with a good frequeny

Around the 16 main on the ORR there is land enough for planning a terminal for LRT/monorail..

even the PPP model will be lucrative for the private partipants as the money is not a constraints for the IT co employees..pricing a ticked double than what the volvo ride takes now should also not be a problem..

Btwn can a magic box eb retrofit below the silkboard flyover?

narayan82's picture

Re: Blrsri

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what if - just a suggestion - the elevated road, was robbed off 2 lanes (hence becomes a single lane expressway) and tracks are laid out for a Mono Rail? Construction time will be less as most of the big work is done! we all know that the expressway will get you frm point A to B faster but that time would probably made up witht he long wait at B. With the mono rail, a Park-Ride system like the one Blrsri proposed can easily fit in.
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
blrsri's picture

complex proposition

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Extract from skyscrapercity.com : Elevated Tollway Ltd (BETL) has proposed a toll of Rs 10 to Rs 70 per trip for different modes of vehicles, including heavy commercial vehicles.
The toll rate will be linked to the wholesale price index with an option to revise the rate every year to protect itself from any escalation in its operational costs during the 20-year concession period under the BOT contract.

It looks like a complex proposition for making money...if on BETL we want to run public transport..it would hurt them more..as they would prefer more individual drivers on their road!

This can change if BETL themselves invest in the monorail/lrt project..wouldnt that be heaven!?

idontspam's picture

Overconstructed

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I personally feel Hosur road is overconstructed already. BETL with the surface highway should be able to handle traffic around that area for quite a while. No point pouring more money down that drain. North-South & East-West linkage from silkboard onwards should take precedence.
silkboard's picture

BETL itself could do it - good idea!

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Its sad enough that BETL was preferred over a public transit investment on connectivity to Electronics City. I have heard excuses, this is NHAI work, not BBMP; at the time of distress, take what you can get - well, not good enough. Somebody has to think of building feeder transit systems to make good use of BETL. And thats not NHAI's job.

But no ill feelings. What has happened has happened. With BETL around, we will have to be careful not to increase their gestation period. So as you say blrsri, they can be offered first right of refusal to either propose, build or operate feeder mass transit systems around BETL. Sounds like a good idea.

The thing is, we got to move past these band-aid (flyovers) solutions. Its time for some surgeries to show seriousness towards mobility of people and not vehicles. LRT/monorial to feed BETL offers an opportunity.

Tarle - sure enough, maybe Praja can grow to be a University of Town Planning and Administration. Dreaming is the first step, isn't it!?

namma_nadu's picture

bad idea - not so sure....

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I am not too sure the underpass here at 16th main would be a bad idea. Consider that a huge apartment complex is coming up at the junction at 16th main ( looks like 100 + apartments to me) and some construction behind the advaita petrol bunk...this place is already a major headache - easily one of the worst in Bangalore. Even if the NICE corridor comes up - this is still the major route for people to go to HSR & beyond from the Southern parts.  At least the 16th main junction gets cleared out. Agreed that underpasses have underperformed or atleast moved the mess further away - but i am not sure the magic box will work here. BTW - i feel that is being pushed by the IAS /IPS lobby as they have a major residential enclave here and the Dollar colony residents must have pushed for it. 
flanker's picture

how about magic boxes at

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149 users have liked.
how about magic boxes at junctions 1 2 3. silkboard will kill me for this. Wink
sandeepckeerthi's picture

Past due flyover / corridor

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This flyover is welcome. But, it should take care of all the 4 possible bottlenecks on BTM road. If it cannot, then my suggestion is: Magic boxes at 16th cross, strategically placed magic boxes at Silk Board and finally better traffic management at the 2 other possible bottlenecks as mentioned by SilkBoard in the diagram. That way in about 2-3 months, we can have a smooth uninterrupted ride on the BTM road.

I love what the magic boxes have done on Bellary road. 

Sajith's picture

Underpass at Horamavu

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Anyone here has any idea on the design of the Hormavu-ORR Underpass?,Work has already started on it and is expected to be completed by January 2009.There are traffic deviations on the ORR due to this work now.
anent's picture

BTM 16th Main - Magic box - a good option

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BTM 16th Main Road - Magic box can be good option to relief traffic congestion.

But this is not enough, Peak hours traffic from ORR & Electronic City hit Silkboard Junction.

Building an Underpass at Silk-board between BTM <> ORR would help as a permanent solution!

Bus Stop @ Silkboard has to be moved little inside towards BTM to avoid congestion near the junction after the Signal on Silkboard X Roads.

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