Deccan Herald ran long writeups on Airport connectivity last week, and their reporters did some realistic time checks as well. We know most of those things: extending Metro from Byappanahalli, the now famous six-lane BIAL expressway, check-in counters at railway station itself. But there were some plans and ideas I had not heard in greater details earlier.
The suggestion of Mono Rail from Mekhari Circle was one. Check-in counters at Mekhari circle and then a monorail taking you to the airport sounds like a good idea. You could run it all over NH-7 itself, which means no land acquisition related litigations or politics.
Other thing I had only heard bits and pieces on was the concept of Airport Special buses. 40 specially designed (enough space for luggage) Volvo (I hate the free publicity this bus company gets in our city, anyway) buses running between different parts of the city to BIAL, sounds like a good idea in theory. But I am not sure if middle class Bangaloreans trust punctuality of public transport - especially the bus variety - enough to prefer a bus over taxi or personal cars.
One more thing we have not heard a lot about is connectivity from Eastern side of Bangalore. To quote a bureaucrat from that Deccan Herald write-up:
"The state highways have been readied on the eastern side of the airport. The access from Whitefield, Devanahalli and Northern side of the airport will be a through four-lane expressway"
A four lane expressway!? Not that we don't know the road being talked about here. Some of us have noted construction work to upgrade a road that connects NH207 (a highway that runs along Varthur/Whitefield/Hoskote) to NH7 somewhere near the airport. See the map below if that route didn't make sense to you. You could go from ITPL (marker #1) out towards NH207 (markers #2/3/4), and then take that connecting road (marker #5) to go west and hit the new airport.
Will this route be upgradd to a four-lane "expressway" as Mr V P Baligar says in that DH Metrolife article? I doubt that statement. I think Mr Baligar used the 'expressway' word to imply a fast four lane road and nothing more.
PS: If they are indeed thinking of a four-lane expressway from this side to BIAL/Devanahalli, then being a resident of Whitefield, I would be jumping with joy here.
Comments
mono
mekhri circle, hebbal etc,
errata
Access to airport
250 objections filed against expressway