Will the Bangalore City Planners Stand up?

While thinking through the baggage of issues around Bangalore International Airport, a thought crossed my mind. I assess, if implemented this may reduce Bangaloreans’ woes, even if it is a tad extent.  

After the high dramma, the city is gradually coming to terms with living without HAL Airport. The kick-off of BIAL was received with confused feeling  - mix of grandeur and frustration. Yesterday, I was on the road from Mekhri Circle to Ramanamaharishi Road (Road you’d take from Le Meridien towards Hebbal/ Mekhri Circle). I noticed the new fly-over at the BDA Junction. There was a grid-locked traffic at the newly commissioned underpass. Having been through that I was challenged by the narrow road through which traffic plies by. Further there was another point where you need to take a U-Turn above an under-pass – I guess its called Kaveri Theatre underpass. It became worse with the downpours.

 

I see this stretch is a key link to the BIAL, Devnahalli for many. Once you are exposed to these bottlenecks, your catching a flight would be entirely at bthe mercy of the traffic and the sanity of other drivers. The situation isn’t much different on other roads.

 

With BBMP’s attempt to provide frequent bus services, it would address – the need for public transport. But the challenge cited above will hardly be addressed. (Many people with a car will still opt to park their vehicles at the airport; I suspect that would congest the 2000+ parking slots in the first  day itself. The High Speed Rail Link is at least 3 years away. That will only have a link from M G Road to Devnahalli. That will not answer the need for linkages from other parts of the City, say East or South Bangalore.

 

While the BBMP’s attempts, City Planners’ efforts, State Infrastructure departments is laudable – pending the quality solution, it’d be a wise to explore existing infrastructure. Even if it may not be an ideal solution, it’d be still a good interim option. It certainly can’t match up with a High Speed Link, but it can serve two purposes

1. Offer another option to commuters, and help decongest the city traffic
2. Be a predictable option – and very often beat the service level of BBMP Volvo buses.

In fact while I was searching up for distance of Devnahalli Airport from Devnahalli Railway Station (or the nearest railhead), I came across the a post by ‘Raja’ (Titled “Karnataka ignores low-cost connectivity to new airport “) http://indianrailways.informe.com/forum/rail-connectivity-to-new-airports-at-sbc-hyb-mas-dt370-15.html which has a detailed report. I think it requires a bigger group of Citizens-State Administration-City Admin-Railways to review/revisit the option.

 

I am sure that there can be a well-rounded approach whereby people can have multiple options to pick from. Most importantly we need a proactive future proof solution which addresses scalability.