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Malleswaram underpass opens successfully
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 | Bangalore | Infrastructure | Road Works | Underpass | Malleswaram
[By Malolan R Cadambi]
Malleswaram residents had welcome blessings from the gods today. No, I am not writing just about the a mild drizzle to cool down the city that we had today evening, but also about the “blessings” we received when the underpass long over due today opened for traffic.
Since I am a resident of 6th Cross Road, which is parallel to the Underpass, I could personally vouch for the massive reduction in traffic on my road as well as the pressure on Sampige Road.
Before the underpass was proposed, there was a normal four lane road, two for on coming traffic and two in the other direction. Even with this, traffic used to get chocked at the end of Malleswaram ground and used to go through 6th Cross as a thoroughfare.
Even as the underpass was being constructed, 6th Cross still used to remain a thoroughfare. But things have massively changed from today and one can even guage a small smile on the face of a lot of residents other than myself.
According to one of the MLA candidates from Malleswaram constituency, 4000 buses used to pass through Malleswaram Circle – which is strategically located at the centre of North-South routes and East-West routes.
Starting the underpass today has shown an effect on traffic.But still, private users of vehicles complain that there are too many buses and autorickshaws. Well, given that private vehicles are quite ineffecient compared to public transport (Ref: CTTP Report), the former's criticism is not valid at all.
Malleswaram is well connected even frequency wise by public transport, hence obliviating the need for much private transport to and from this ward. The upcoming Metro station on 5th Cross should also alleviate the traffic problems further.
Malleswaram is a prominent spiritual centre and a shopping centre, which draws people from all over Bengaluru. One blogger calls Malleswaram 8th Cross as “desi brigade road”. High property values in this town are a testament to the demand for this location.
But there are some “teething” (I.e starting) problems with the underpass. Nevertheless, this gets solved over a period of time as people get used to the new (or rather) old routes. Sampige and Margosa roads are back to being one ways as they were for decades.
There is still a problem for traffic coming west from Gutahalli main road and heading towards Rajajinagar. They still have to get caught at the small Coconut Avenue roads that lies at the junction of Geethanjali Theatre, the underpass and Link Road. Designers and planners have to address this particular bottleneck as one section of the underpass is relatively un-used.
In a brief interview with Dr S Subrahmanya, the Honourable Commissioner of B.B.M.P, he said that the access roads parallel to the underpass would be complete soon and a modern bus shelter would be installed opposite to the Police Station, where it was located since decades.
I did see a smile on his face, perhaps justified given that the Malleswaram underpass was quite successful in doing what it set out to do – reduce burden on inner areas of Malleswaram and provide a quicker transit for traffic flowing on arterial routes.
COMMENTS
Bang on target
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 15:15
Yes, this is it exactly.
Thanks for the update
silkboard - 21 May, 2008 - 15:04
Thanks for the update Malolan. This is it, right?
[gmap line=#227722/3/1:12.997198256275656 , 77.57141590118408 + 12.995943776142928 , 77.57141590118408 |line=#227722/3/1:12.996821912901487 , 77.57090091705322 + 12.99678009693581 , 77.57218837738037 |zoom=14 |center=12.99678009693581,77.57218837738037 |width=480px |height=320px |control=Small |type=Map]holy grail
tsubba - 21 May, 2008 - 17:39
member 1 seeks pointed uber local info. member 2,3...n provide local insights. this is the kind of stuff i always dreamt about. this is the holy grail. thanks all.
me the ubergeek of Malleswaram is a 4th generation resident here. hard to believe, but that is the case. we are living in the same property my great grand father bought in 1906! yes, we still have the title deed from that era!
Malleswaram Market Area
Naveen - 21 May, 2008 - 14:14
Hullo Malolan,
Since you reside at Malleswaram, I just wanted a little information :
Sampige road has many shops & a market that are very well patronized & pedestrian priorities are, I feel a necessity there.
If Sampige road were chosen for a bus corridor, & for cycles & pedestrians only, (buses running at it's centre, whilst leaving room at sides for cycle tracks & pedestrians), can the road opposite BP Indian High School (starting immediately west of KC gen hospital, west of the ground) be made to handle all other traffic one way ? Margosa road (east of the ground) is already used as one way in the other direction.
I had gone around the area earlier, studying this aspect & felt that this was possible as this road is quite wide.
What are your thoughts ? Appreciate your comments, thanks.
Sampige Road
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 14:21
Naveen,
I had the same idea. Yes, Sampige and Margosa roads are both suited for exclusive Bus Corridors.
A majority of the shoppers and visitors to Malleswaram use buses. Only a small number use two wheelers and an insignificant number use cars. Even if all these two wheelers and cars were to vanish, it would not dent malleswaram economically.
I wanted to campaign for banning parking of two wheelers on Sampige Road - which blocks crucial buses.
But residents of 4th Main Road (i.e BP Indian Road) are now relived that their road is quite and residents now can go up and down the road on their private vehicles.
4th Main road has now become a low density quite road. Residents would be relieved if it is this way.
Malleswaram 4th Main
Naveen - 21 May, 2008 - 14:47
Thanks for that, Cadambi.
I gather that for you, as a local resident, it's better not to have 4th main as a thoroughfare for vehicles + there are schools (there is also a govt school further, but I cant remeber the name). The point is, if Samige rd (2nd main) were to be made bus only, the other vehicles have to be provided alternatives.
The alternatives are 4th main (BP School rd), 7th main or 8th main. Which do you think is most suitable. The other main roads close to Margosa rd (3rd Main) are all too small for use as a thoroughfare, is'nt it ?
4th Main is ideal alternative
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 15:13
I observed that many vehicles coming from Navrang down eastwards had difficulty going into Malleswaram. Hence there is only one left turn that is possible for this traffic.
IMO, 4th Main is best suited for private vehicles like Cars, Two Wheelers who will be using this road only because it connects both the 5th Cross (Mahakavi Kuvempu Road) on one end and 18th Cross Road on the other.
The other government school is Government Girls High School - where i voted this time.
The point is - do not have both buses and private vehicles on 4th main. If there are private vehicles only then having 4th main as a two way lane is feasible.
The density is not much in 4th main because most of the residents are senior citizens who do not travel much unlike residents of Koramangala et al.
Ensure less noise on 4th Main
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 15:19
Residents of 4th Main have no animosity towards private vehicles using their road as thoroughfare.
But if it is considered for as an alternative thorough fare, then utmost importance should be given to the fact that most of the residents in this road are senior citizens - who use the road for their morning and evening walks.
8th Cross should be pedestrianized. No vehicle movement except for loading and unloading of trucks confined to early morning or late nights only.
Malleswaram - Thanks.
Naveen - 21 May, 2008 - 16:36
Thanks for yr inputs Mcadambi - greatly appreciated.
Thanks SB.
The thought is to run a bus lane from Dr.Rajkumar rd (Rajajinagar) on Magadi rd jn through Magadi rd, Platform rd, Sampige rd, CV Raman rd to Yeswanthpur, Soap Factory (Metro stn) & use Dr.Rajkumar rd for the return, in a loop.
If this were done, Sampige rd can be made bus/pedestrian/bicycles only, whilst all other vehicles need an alternative for going north - 4th main is one option.
Much of 8th Cross is illegal vendors
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 16:54
Santsub,
There was a Market for fruit, vegetable and flower vendors planned and still exists at 13th cross - diagonally opposite to Sai Baba Mandir and next to FoodWorld.
This was the originally planned Market way back in 1898 when Malleswaram was first planned.
Thanks to ineffecienies and bureaucratic bungle, entire East Park Road is now used as an illegal market, along with 8th Cross. We see massive pile up of garbage there.
Consumers have no choice but to buy from these vendors / hawkers. Legalising this will set a dangerous precedent.
The only option is to develop the Malleswaram market and shut down hawking at eight Cross. Eight Cross is a crucial artery that connects Gutahalli Main Road to the Malleswaram Railway Station.
8th Cross - Hawkers
santsub - 21 May, 2008 - 16:59
You are right Sir! - I thought the new Malleswaram market that was supposed to be the place where everyone was shifting was operational - it did not hit me hard that that footpath on 8th cross was all illegal businesses and to top it the basements of the buildings on the sides are full - even the age old famous Janata Hotel is camouflaged with a narrow entrance :) - I think these hawkers have to be moved but then when we move towards Guttahalli on 8th cross the road itself curves - guess that was another illegal occupancy - dont know if they can change it now.. I was wondering if they could open up the road from (Former) malleswaram circle to link guttahalli and make 8th cross more pedestrian friendly?
Evicting hawkers is quite politically sensitive. In Malleswaram Reliance Fresh stores were attacked.
The only way is to make hawking un-economical so that the surplus services labour in cities are sucked into manufacturing. For this manufacturing has to improve, but we are still in starting stages of our manufacturing revolution.
Besides a majority of vegetable vendors are women and hence it makes it a crucial sector that can cause a big social backlash.
Therefore, it will take some time before we see hawking disappear.
Can we make a list of points
Naveen N - 21 May, 2008 - 17:58
Can we make a list of points from which the metro (reach-wise) can be connected through circular/point-to-point bus routes? i believe such suggestions have already been made in another post.
For example, in the Rajajinagar-Malleshwaram-Sheshadripuram-Sadashivanagar-Yeshwantpur-Rajajinagar circuit, there are 7 metro stations (Yeshwantpur, Govt. Soap Factory, Mahalakshmi Layout Entrance, Rajajinagar, MKK Road, Malleshwaram, Swastik). We can make a list of routes for each reach of the metro lines on which BMTC can run mini-buses or normal buses (if roads are wide enough) to maximize the catchment area.
One such route that comes to my mind is the route 82/82A. Both are circular starting from Majestic->Sampige Theatre->Malleshwaram 10th main (parallel to railway station road)->Yeshwantpur->Rajkumar Road->Subramanya Nagar->Harischandra Ghat->Malleshwaram Circle->Majestic. 82 and 82A run in opposite directions. If we can avoid Majestic and run circular routes within 5-6 large residential extensions connecting them to metro stations, the metro catchment area would automatically increase. We can have a Sadashivanagar to Yeshwantpur or Sadashivanagar to Swastik route that captures metro traffic from Sadashivanagar and surrounding areas.
Gimme sometime
mcadambi - 21 May, 2008 - 18:28
I'll do a small survey and get back to you naveen about this.
However, Sampige Road and Margosa road are immediate candidates for an exclusive bus lane. All one needs to do is to ban parking on Sampige Road from 8th Cross to 10th Cross.
Parking at these three crosses and temporary stoping of cars on either side of the roads causes a lot of jams and hurdles for buses.
Are there any pictures of
Niranjana - 22 May, 2008 - 01:42
Are there any pictures of the Malleswaram Underpass?
Photos of Malleshwaram Underpass
Photoyogi - 22 May, 2008 - 02:16
Thanks Cadambi for the nice report on Malleswaram underpass. I was so enthused after reading your report, I took a drive down the underpass.
I can see why you are smiling, I think it looks very nice in terms of construction and over all design. I hope you along with the malleswaram residents in some way make sure we don't have the side walls defaced with filmi posters.
[flickr-photo:id=2512117573,size=m] [flickr-photo:id=2512117955,size=m]
--
Praveen Sundaram
AkA PhotoYogi
Thank you, Mr.Photoyogi, for
Niranjana - 22 May, 2008 - 02:24
Thank you, Mr.Photoyogi, for the pictures of the underpass. It looks really good.
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