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I went to Coonoor last week by KSRTC bus. Last year I drove with my friends to Bluff, Sivanasamudram. There are some facts which I have experienced:

1. When you cross over, even with eyes closed you can tell if you have entered Karnataka or leaving Karnataka State. The condition of roads will give you a jarring jab and from then on only god help your back!

2. The drive between Mysore and even Nanjanagud is the worst experience anybody can have. Letters to the Editor by well known town planners and Engineers are not even read by authorities.

3.The road between Gundlupet and Bandipur is so bad most of the vehicles had abandoned the so called road and were driving on the uneven mud track next to the tarred road on either side!

4.Two years back when we drove to Shivanasamudram for a Jalothsava festival, the driving experience put all of us out of action for a week.

5.Even the road between Mysore and the 'world-famous' KRS Brindavan Gardens is an apology of a road. Why is it so?Ask the present Lokayuktha and his predessor.They can give statistics who were supervising the roads etc..

As long as corruption is raging, either by PWD or Municipal corpn and the bosses for a variety of reasons turn a blind eye, nothing is going to change. I know for a fact that roads in Mysore almost always get funds TWICE a year- once from the city corporation and' special Dasara' funds from the C.M. Last year, like every year, the roads were' 'spruced up' before Dasara and the authorities claimed The civil Engineering Depts of NIE / SJCE had given 'satisfactory' certificates after inspection by them. The condition of roads were so bad, both these colleges went to the press claiming they were in no way connected with the roads that were spruced up! Unless, there is a sea- change in the attitude of the bosses and their colleagues, pride in their work , a modicum of honesty our roads will remain a mud-track!

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Want to add that information I posted above are based on two sources

• Arvind Jadhav's talk to BCIC Infra Committee back in December
• Half page ad in Business-Standard, Jan 27, Bangalore edition, page 14

I was waiting for a mainstream newspaper to carry more details, but don't see any good reports yet.

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we are not necessarily a country of toll payers..there are many slow vehicles like tractors,autos and two wheelers which will eventually use these roads..

do we make them all pay toll?
first give them jobs to earn a decent salary to afford two sqaure meals!

The govt coffers are empty and they go announcing such PPP's to spend nothing and get name!

Think Kheny instilled this idea in the govt to make a real estate racket of the western ghats where he plans a highway from blr to mangalore!

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My big worry as a tree lover is that road widening is going to result in the destruction of thousands of avenue trees. Yes, they will promise to plant saplings in the ratio of 1: 10 etc. But, how many of these will survive and grow up to become trees is a big question mark. And, after those that survive, and have grown into trees, it will be time for widening the road further, and chopping off even these trees therewith. I am not sure I find the idea very exciting.

Besides, good connectivity cannot be ensured by having wide roads. What is more important is good bus services. And, if that remains a government monopoly, the whole idea is even less exciting. If the license-permit raaj is dismantled, and the 'public' proper (unfortunately termed 'private') facilitated, this deficiency can be overcome in a matter of months. That should be the first priority.

Muralidhar Rao

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SB,

Look at our track record. 

a. Bangalore Mangalore Highway - Shiradi Ghat.  They cannot maintain a 20 km stretch in good shape for more than 3 months

b. NH-4.  Only unfinished stretches are in Karnataka.  Hubli-Haveri is one.  I think there are a couple of others.  This is 4 years behind the revised schedule.

c. NICE- look at the mess.  We have not been able to resolve that 500m stretch called Gottigere.

d. Look at the Bangalore Mysore road via KPura and Kollegal.  Miserable.

e. Mysore Ooty road for the first 5 km after Gundlupet.  Miserable.  And this leads to a famous wildlife sanctuary.

What are we going to do differently this time?  Or are we just dishing out big plans to distract people from the current mess.  They announced the 6 laning of Bangalore Hassan long back.  I see even now details of land acquisition.  STRR seems to have vanished from all news.

Srivathsa

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Uncontrolled and Unpatrolled roads will become race tracks for the youth. Basically in India, people just not commute in their cars, they want to enjoy, in otherwords 'maze' from the drive at high speeds. Car drivers and passengers loose their precious life because of this 'maze' driving.

Bangalore-Mysore for example was earlier mostly travelled by Trains because of lack of good road. As soon as the road was 4 laned and clean cement road was laid, people started driving to Mysore. This resulted in too many accidents mostly car accidents. Bus related fatal accidents reduced, it is mostly 'touch' accidents for the buses, but the car fatal accidents have increased too much. But, 4 laning has resulted in lots of developments on either sides of the road and lot many hotels have cashed in. It is the accidents which worries me.One of our close family friend's mother died on Bangalore Mysore road and his father permanently disabled.  My friend bought a new Swift and was driving from Mysore to Bangalore. A truck took reverse in a U turn near Mandya which was not anticipated by my friend. Truck hit the car which was at 100 kph. My friend's mother passed away on the spot, father permanently disabled, daughter who was sitting in the front was about to loose her eyes from the broken glass piece, friend fully fractured. This incident makes me to think twice before travelling by Car for not to loose near and dear ones.

Tolling is a good thing to reduce the cars and making people travel by Bus or Train therby safeguarding them.

Today's TOI or DH has got statistics from Nimhans which says  30%  of the patients admitted are related to highway accidents.

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 Going thru various papers and studies for addressing Bangalore and Karnataka's transportation needs, I am going nuts. There are so many studies, working groups and plans that are out in public forums, I am really at loss to map out the top down hierarchy of authority who would implement the plans. There is CTTP, ABIDE, KUIDFC, BMLTA etc. Is there a clear cut relationship between each of these agencies/groups that I have missed? I hope I am not the only one to feel that way?

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I worry if I will be alive to see the day when all this is actually implemented. I guess any kind of infrastructure development, or any development for 'Public good' needs to go through fast-track courts, mandatorily. These courts should give judgements within 1 year at most. Only then will we see some progress in our lifetime.

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"I hope I am not the only one to feel that way?"

No you are not... welcome to the club. 

Can you share some of them you find interesting in a blog or gyan page?

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... to see new development initiatives. Development is normally a good thing, isn't it?

Since we are talking a lot of money (and real estate), motives could be many. I hope the final decision on each stretch is going to be based on some analytical finding, with a clear, documented 'before' and 'after' scenario. Praja members (and general public) should demand such an analysis.

I'd rather improve the 'state' of our existing roads though. Why widen the roads, cut trees, throw money and real estate away (and not to mention our current right to free ride!), if existing lane widths are sufficient? Given proper surface finish and strength, marking, controlled gradients, access control, intersection management, enforcement, city bypasses etc, our roads can certainly carry a lot more traffic. Has anyone done any analysis on this one yet? Some sections of the roads may need to be widened, but it may turn out to be a fraction of the total.

And even when widening the roads, I don't understand why we have to fell trees on both sides. Why can't we plan to opt to keep one side of them?

In any case, I think we are better off if we spent our resources understanding, documenting and cleaning up the mess we already have, before we look at adding to the existing chaos.

Ravi

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this project will be useful

-Hegde

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It was TOI, and statistics from Nimhans says that it is 80% of the people who are killed in Highway Accidents and 20% in City Accidents.

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This comment has been moved here.

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plan to modernize state roads on PPP while the plan is quite welcome, my big worry is that the private developers will be allowed land to buy along the these roads for commericial and township ventures (about 10 acres); this will lead to concretization along the sides of the roads; thus the greenery and its associated beauty will be spoilt for ever; so the state govt. shuld have other means of atracting private partners; here are a few suggetsions (1) the private players should be allowed to buy land only for establishment of flower gardens and fruits orchards, upto about 10 acres; the produce from these gardens can be sold by them for profit; THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BUY LAND FOR construction of COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS AND TOWNSHIPS (2) for the rest of the length of the roads between villages and towns, afforestation should be made (3) all these roads should be of concrete with boundaries along the roads to prevent straying of animals and cattle (3) there should not be any signal lights for turns instead underpasses and flyovers should be constructed and undindered traffic flow should be implemented (4) praja should intreract with these private dvelopers so that our views can be easily realized many thanks Srinath Heragu

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If we find youth using these wide & high speed roads as personal race tracks, well, let us look ahead in the decades to come. Today there is a dearth for such wide roads, and hence whenever someone finds a patch of open land, he races his automobile! Tomorrow when every road around us is a wide and high speed one, racing gets boring, and commonplace! Everyone on that road would be doing a 120 and who would find these racing bikes different?

i have not read other posts in this thread. but taking this contention on its own merit.

that is only true for a fixed population. every year new bunch of kids get their licences and kids with a natural fancy for sound and speed. even if it were cycles kids and men in general have a natural fancy for speed.

sanity & safety on roads can only be achieved through enforcement.

the road network itself is a must and will ensure greater cohesion between different parts of the state. spread oppurtunities.

talking of which, NH-4 perhaps the most important artery in KA completed yet?

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As TS said, these are necessary evils. We know our roads are  not safe, literally become racing tracks and take the lives of many, this has become a necessary evil for economic development. Mysore Road for example after 4 laning has resulted in economic development on either sides of the road . Cities and Towns like Mandya, Channapatna, Ramanagaram and Bidadi have changed.

After 4 laning, Trucks and Bus accidents have reduced  and car accidents have increased. Lots of bus companies are introducing Volvos and nowadays Mercedes buses. It is safer and more comfortable to travel in these buses than cars in these highways unless until it is absolutely needed. Karnataka is lagging in rail infrastructure from years, hence alternative are the NHDPs.

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@ Vasanth,
I am beginning to wonder what kind of economic development you're referring to here, in places along SH-17. Because if you're talking about hotels coming along SH-17, and village density increasing alarmingly closer to the highway, that is not what we want, even if people might be impressed by the economic strength it. might have created in people.

In the long run, we actually dont want highways to attract neighbourhoods, or townships, or any villages to flourish around highways - for they are more often the deterrants to the very purpose of a highway - to help reach from place A to place B. Besides, there's a heck lot of more area in our land out there which people can occupy. In fact people out there just dont come and occupy places nearer to roads - all these must be getting politically motivated, and that, we need to help stop.

Slightly leading to a different topic, but couldnt help clarify the stand we need to have upon highways, on this thread itself.

-Nijavaada

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ssheragu Hello Prajagale & Vasanth / Nijavaada I would like to reoeat what I have posted earleir While the plan to modernize state roads on PPP is quite welcome, my big worry is that the private developers will be allowed land to buy along the these roads for commericial and township ventures (about 10 acres); this will lead to concretization along the sides of the roads; thus the greenery and its associated beauty will be spoilt for ever; so the state govt. shuld have other means of atracting private partners; Pleaseconsider my suggestions in all fairness (1) the private players should be allowed to buy land only for establishment of flower gardens and fruits orchards, upto about 10 acres; the produce from these gardens can be sold by them for profit; THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO BUY LAND FOR construction of COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS AND TOWNSHIPS (2) for the rest of the length of the roads between villages and towns, afforestation should be made (3) all these roads should be of concrete with boundaries along the roads to prevent straying of animals and cattle (3) there should not be any signal lights for turns instead underpasses and flyovers should be constructed and undindered traffic flow should be implemented (4) praja should intreract with these private dvelopers so that our views can be easily realized we, especially Srinath Heragu / Vasanth / Nijavaada should form a core team, contact the govt. department / agency repsonsible for inviting private parties, discuss these plans with the govt. department / agency & private parties and make sure that they are implemented so that any passsneger is offered a visual treat of greenery for 100 Kms of road length between two towns sperated by a distance of 120 Kms. many thanks Srinath Heragu gau

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Any updates on this project.Looks like everyone have forget about this project. Has this project been halted?

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