We must complete this project to coincide with the completion of the elevated corridor,

Isnt it too late already?

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The bangalore mirror carried an update on BETL. Full article here

WILL OPEN IN NOV

You need to wait till November before driving on the elevated highway. The project was earlier scheduled to be open this week. A National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said, “We now expect the project to open in November first week. However, ground realities may push it to the middle of November.” The project was conceived in September 2004 while the ground work started in July 2006. It was supposed to be completed in July 2008. Initially, it was escalating costs of cement and steel that delayed the project, followed by recession and the Maytas scam. Now, incessant rainfall is playing spoilsport, according to officials.

Rs 776 CR PROJECT

The elevated road project is constructed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. According to the Bangalore Elevated Tollway Limited (BETL) website, the Rs 775.7 crore project is being executed through special purpose vehicle BETL, created by the joint venture partners involving Maytas Infra, Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) and Soma Enterprises (SEL).

SILK BOARD BOTTLENECK

Flyovers are always criticised as not a viable alternative as they are said to shift traffic from one junction to another. There are similar fears being expressed about the Hosur flyover as the Silk Board flyover could turn out to be a bottleneck. Traffic experts say that the vehicles can move smoothly from Hosur to Central Silk Board junction but may pile up thereafter as there are no free turns at the grade separator. They suggest clover leaf or semi clover leaf models for clearing traffic at Central Silk Board.

vinod

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Here is some news from Express.  BETL will be thrown open to the public in May.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Elevated+highway+to+be+ready

I hope they have thought through a few things

a. Managing accidents and breakdowns.  If one or worse both lanes get blocked because of a breakdown or accident, how does a towing vehicle/ambulance reach quickly.  They have exits only at each end.  The part of the road behind the accident will be crazy - so no access from there.  A towing vehicle will have to drive against the traffic to reach?  Do they have removable median sections to provide accress or create counter flow lanes?

b. Toll collection - hopefully only at exits and NOT at entrances.  The toll booth at the exit will serve to regulate traffic as well into the city roads near Silkboard.

c. How will they regulate speed on the expressway given Bangaloreans' good sense of safety and voluntary submission to rules and regulations?

I think I will stand near Silkboard a few weeks after the highway is opened to watch what happens.

Srivathsa

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This was the toll plaza a couple of weeks after the Delhi Gurgaon expressway opened.  Shows the futility of trying to keep up with cars.  When I watch the cars in Bombay on the WE Highway heading towards town most have ONE person in them.  70 kg of man and 1000 kg of metal. 

I am sure all the people in the above pictures would fit into 1 MRT 6 coach train.

I don't know if things have improved a great deal in the last 1 year.

Srivathsa

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I think I will stand near Silkboard a few weeks after the highway is opened to watch what happens.

This is probably what you will see

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There are probably 100 cars in there with an average of 2 persons in each. A 3 coach metro can hold 5 times that number and will reach the destination before the cars can clear the toll booth. Hows that for comparision?

We still need highways leading outside the city and maybe a solution is to not have physical booths at all. Have RFID driven gantries instead like the congestion charging ones in Singapore and Stockholm which can deduct toll automatically. If you dont have those instruments you are probably better off using the non tolled highway below. 

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That toll plaza "boasts" 16 lanes in each direction.  Traffic seems to have backed up 12-15 car lengths and more seem to be behind.  That would be about 300 -350 cars - would still fit comfortably into a 3 coach MRT train.

That road is 27 km long.  So 27 km in 20 mins + 40 mins at the toll plaza and we have averaged a spectacular 27 kmph.  They have sensible toll rates such as Rs.17, 11, 34, etc. which help in increasing transaction times. 

Srivathsa

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Nice Picture Yajamanare!! That is what we will exactly see when it opens.

I am just waiting for the day when BETL opens and screws up!! All that BETL will do is move the all the traffic jams between E-city and Bomasandra to SilkBoard jn.

We already face huge traffic jams (pile ups) near the silkboard jn on the roads leading to BTM layout and Forum/Koramangala. This situation will just explode when BETL opens.

Hopefully then atleast, the advocates of elevated roads, signal free junctions and wide roads will realize their mistakes. All i hope is that wisdom will dawn upon them and they will focus on mass transportation solutions and only on mass transportation solutions and nothing else.

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They are now in a "Damned if you do and damned if you don't stage".   There are two possibilities - they have enough toll plazas and clear the traffic quickly; this will lead to massive jamming at the Silkboard flyover.  The other possibility is they don't have enough toll plazas and the traffic backs up on the elevated road. 

Typically a 2 second rule is to be followed - keep a 2 second gap between two cars.  At 72 kmph this will be a 40 m gap.  (I think we keep a 0.5 second gap in India considering how we tail gate.  Assume a 1 second gap for a moment.  Cars will arrive at the toll plaza at 2 every second.  If they take 20 seconds to clear a car, they need  minimum of 10 toll booths just to keep things stable.  If they have anything less than that, massive queues will build up.  They will need good systems to direct cars to free lanes to balance things out.  I don't know how well they have thought through this.  Is there place at SB junction to build a 10 lane toll plaza?

Of course, they can end up having monthly passes and let cars out very quickly.  The toll plaza then is no longer the bottleneck.  Expect SB junction to be a MEGA MESS.  7 lanes of traffic = 2 elevated + 3 surface + 2 service roads all trying to merge into 2 or 3.  The speed of traffic will drop to a crawl.

Good luck.

Srivathsa

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Saw this from the Bangalore Mirror.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=1&contentid=2008122520081225010308345775c774&sectxslt=&pageno=1

"As one NHAI official told Bangalore Mirror, “You won’t need to stop at the toll plazas. The Bangalore Elevated Tollway Limited (BETL), a special purpose vehicle executing the Electronics City elevated road project, will be introducing electronic toll collection (ETC) alongside manual toll booths. ETC can handle 1,200 vehicles per hour as against 350 at manual plazas.” "
 

So if all their calculations are correct and the cars all just sail through the toll plazas, then we will have a MEGA MESS at Silkboad Junction where 7 lanes of traffic try to merge into 2 or 3.  BTM Ring Road will be a sight to behold. 

Srivathsa

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Read this in the TOI today.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bangalore/Hosur-Rd-expressway-could-shift-traffic-bottlenecks/articleshow/4307362.cms

So Rs.765 crores and almost 4 years on, this has dawned upon us. 

Srivathsa

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Read this in DNA

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1224717

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed improvements to the flyover across the Central Silk Board (CSB) junction.

The BBMP has estimated the traffic pile up on BTM layout at 450 metres. The BBMP proposal to ABIDe include three options to integrate traffic on ORR with that on the flyover above and thus eliminate the need for traffic signals. 

ABIDe View, ABIDe member and traffic expert, Prof MN Srihari said that infrastructure was the need of the hour, especially when the elevated corridor to Electronic City from CSB junction is about to be commissioned.

"When you have heavy traffic on the elevated corridor arriving at the CSB junction, it would be impossible for the traffic below the flyover to move. We must complete this project to coincide with the completion of the elevated corridor," he said. 

Prof Srihari also opined that ABIDe would also consider an option to have an underground connectivity instead of the proposed elevated loops.

Srivathsa

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Typical!  We have multiple agencies (NHAI, BBMP, BDA etc. etc.) executing a project, with minimum thought and planning.  The word "design" is anathema it seems.  Any person with common sense could have foreseen this and they have done so from internet postings to lunch tables.

Now we have a new crisis to solve and thus we will keep moving, putting out fire after fire.

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How was this project paid for and who paid 700- 800 crs?. 400 crs when announced in Aug 2004

The 4- laning of hosur road in 1992-93 cost Rs 3/ km approx
so around 100 crs uptill Attibele hosur

now more than 7-8 times for 10 kms
most of it govt paid and not really any PPP?

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Havent heard of any new updates/pics from Praja or outside sources for sometime now, last i heard it was supposed to be thrown open in May, dont think that has happened.

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MAYTAS is not in good shape anymore and that affecting the BETL cannot be over ruled..looking at the pics in the link below..it will take few more months to get this opened!

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=394998&page=12 

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Read in the paper version of DH that it is now expected to open in Aug '09.  Not sure whether to hope for delays or timely completion on this one :)

More than a year late and cost over run of Rs.300 crores.  I was reading in another (American) site that cost over runs are routine in public projects.  It is a case of bad and sometime deliberate under-estimation of costs upfront so that projects get through.  Once they reach a certain stage then it becomes impossible to abandon and money just keeps going into them. 

There was nothing here that 4-5 flyovers would not have solved. 

Srivathsa

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Agree with you sri totally..also adding a train would have done more than good!

Now its more like we have created a white elephant dud and are trying to manage it!

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If they know that CSB junction will become a mess as a result of opening this, how about making it a one-way from CSB to Electronic City. 

At least till the problems of turn to ORR is resolved.

Another option charge such high a toll, that very few people use it.  Solves the traffic problem for sure.  White Elephants ... bring them on!

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Travelled yesterday from Silkboard Jn to Bommanahalli..took a U turn back to silkboard..the BETL project may not actually open during Dussara!

There are still too many things to be done on the site!

Btw I did not see the toll plaza at all..this is very surprising!
Also there was nothing specific work on the road which indicated that they are planning for one either!

Was expecting atleast 4 lanes each way to be carved out at the entry and exit of the 2 lane BETL..!

Guys, any updates on this?

Btw it took me close to an hour to cover the 2Kms from and to the SB!

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Like the traffic expert bit in Bangalore Mirror article says - "they suggest clover leaf or semi clover leaf models for clearing traffic at Central Silk Board." - the evening time problem might be fixable (as in create three separate pileups as opposed to a big one at SB flyover - one each at BTM 19th main, Madivala, and on the first HSR layout signal). But the morning backup at toll plaza could be a bigger headache.

Clearance time per vehicle at the toll plaza would be critical, and let us hope that BETL will go for wireless pre-paid tags based toll collection method from day one and not wait for a month of observation etc.

Actually - a statewide effort to have a single platform for wireless pre-paid toll tags should be a good investment right now. Sooner or later, we will have tolled state highways as well.

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two very different things.  These two should have happened in parallel.  We would have then moved the bottleneck to Udupi gardens and to Madivala checkpost.  Then what?

We also have the signal free ORR bringing in vehicles freely into this junction in a year's time once all those flyovers are done.

I would not want to venture near Silkboard junction. 

They should already be selling IVUs for car users who want to use this tollway.

Srivathsa

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"Proposed toll Electronics City

2-wheeler: Rs 15
Autorickshaw: No entry"

Looks like the auto is going to be banned.  It begs the question how will they implement it.Since the toll is at electronics city end ,this may not be easy.

Also, I cannot recollect any other place in the city where auto is banned.I really doubt if it will make any difference to the traffic. The two wheelers are already being allowed ,so diverse traffic will anyways exist.

Any thoughts, anyone?

PS:   Although I  registered  long time back, this is my first post. Hope to contribute more.

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The elevated expressway between Central Silk Board Junction and Electronic city is now almost ready and the promoters are trying to get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inaugurate it. The elevated highway is being promoted by Bangalore Elevated Tollway Limited (BETL) and was supposed to be completed by March 2009. The promoters are planning to charge Rs 10 for a two-wheeler, Rs 30 for a car and Rs 80 for a bus for using the highway once in any direction.

source: here

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http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/newsview.aspx?eddate=01/19/10&pageno=4&edition=9&prntid=12574&bxid=28029428&pgno=4 

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folks any idea how silkboard jn is handling? didnt quite hear anything in the papers. folks who use the road kindly share your experiences.

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http://digital.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&querypage=2&boxid=28530716&parentid=16589&eddate=06/10/10

700 crores for this useless structure? 

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