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Abide Transportation Plans - Letter from RK Mishra

Posting on behalf of R K Mishra

Dear Friends,

Railways - a major letdown for Karnataka

In continuation with some threads on transportation, highways, and the unjust treatment Karnataka (including Bengaluru) has been facing from the Center, here're some fresh wounds the Railway ministry has made on Karnataka.

The 2009-10 interim Railway budget is out, and as expected, has been a disaster for us (Karnataka).

Admission of shoddy works

Today's DH reports CM BSY vented some on the state of public works in Bangalore. Read details here.

Updates on BETL, please

Can any one at Praja help get status of BETL project on Hosur Road? Points for discussion: a) estimated completion date b) current status of the project (pending issues) c) any change in alignments undertaken by consessionaire / NHAI - due to external pressures / any-other (eg: Maytas) d) progress of toll-collection centers & est.

Highways and Ribbon Development

[Moved out of the Karnataka Roads PPP post] Without legislation that stops ribbon development, every new highway and bypass road (meant to by pass the townships) will be engulfed with surrounding development.

Even Mumbai-Pune expressway has not been spared from the above and towards the Pune end, we have numerous junctions sprouting and malls along highway which have driveways opening straight on to the highway!! Wakad in Pune has a Shoppers Stop and several more Corporates on the highway.

If you look at Western stats - country roads are most dangerous and Freeways / Motorways are most safe - because they are free of cycles, pedestrians and junctions. But in India, a highway can have have everything on it - from pedestrians, bullock carts, cycles, rickshaws and multitude of junctions - lots of elements trying to go across and perpendicualr to faster vehicles on the main carriage way. All this = 80% fatalities on Highway as reported above.

Exciting - Karnataka's own NHDP !!

KSHIPI am a bit surprised that mainstream media is yet to show serious interest in a PPP proposal to develop 66000 kms of roads in Karnataka. I first heard about this mega plan about two months ago, and finally, yesterday, half page ads appeared in newspapers with more details. Sounds exciting isn't it, promise of connectivity, and its about the whole state, not just Bengaluru. Call it Karnataka's own NHDP of sorts. Plan is to modernize roads, not build greenfield roadways. Highlights, here they are:

Segregating Pedestrians from Motor vehicle traffic

In To days Times of India the report of yesterdays accident in Indiranagar has been reported on the front page. The page 2 is fully devoted to the story. Mr.

Sankey Road to lose trees

The Arterial Sankey Road, from Cauvery Theatre Junction to Yeshwantpur Circle Junction is going to be widened and going to lose all the green cover it has. It is going to become a major disaster given that Sankey Tank and surrounding regions cannot withstand such a large amount of vehicular pollution.

A solution for eastbound OMR/ORR lanes

The mess at Bennigannahalli is a 2 km microcosm of what haphazard (if any) planning can result in- apathy (and sometimes antipathy) to public transportation, lane indiscipline, poor forethought (narrow RUB; non-existent pedestrian infrastructure) and bad design (Cable-stayed bridge) to name a few. However IMO some solutions are not that far away.

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