KR Puram Railway Station Jn Update

Finally BDA and Traffic Police seem to have woken up to the traffic problem at KR Puram junction (opposite railway station). BDA is proposing to widen the roads leading to the junction (on either side of the cable bridge).

The main hurdle to the project is the narrow junction opposite the railway station. Though there is ample space to widen the road, the land is owned by the Railways and they are refusing to give up the land.

However BDA is proposing an alternative. They plan to acquire govt land in the vicinity of the railway station and give this to the railways in exchange for the land next to the road. This proposal was submitted to SW Railways more than 3 weeks back. The Traffic police represented by Mr Praveen Sood, was also part of this meeting called by BDA.

SW Railways had started the construction of ticket counters in this land next to the road. They had responded positively by stopping any further construction. But nothing has moved since then. This is a high traffic density junction. The stretch is part of the ring road and also links Hosur Main road to Bellary road and Tumkur road (NH4 and NH7) and is also a vital link between the city and Whitefield area.

Even by the most optimistic estimates a person traveling to Whitefield spends on an average half an hour’s time here every day. Even if half of the workforce working in Whitefield take this route (the only other route to Whitefield is the old airport road) that is 20,000 people (only from the Whitefield area). If the junction is decongested, the travel time will reduce to 10 mins (5mins each way), that’s a saving of 20 mins. That is 20000 x 20 mins – around 6667 man hours saved per day!!!.

Industries (Devesh sir are you listening?) and Praja should pressurize SW Railways to accept this proposal. How about some petitions to SW Railways? Praja members with contacts in Railways, please try to find out the status.

The other major problem in this region – Benganahalli railway underpass, God save the people who have to pass through this. Oh by the way the Railways have put up some ads on the railway bridge. It is like the Railways telling us – you better stop, see these ads and then proceed - and repeat these steps atleast 5-6 times everytimes you have to pass through this underpass.