Motorists using ORR from Hebbal towards Tumakuru Road faced a harrowing time during the peak hours on Saturday. Unaware of the traffic diversion to facilitate urgent repair works on MES Ring Road Muthyala Nagar flyover (railway overbridge), motorists were stranded for hours in traffic.
The traffic police have banned all types of vehicles on the flyover from August 13 to 17. The police said that South Western Railway (SWR) approached them seeking diversion of traffic to take up repair works on the RoB. The repair work involves replacement of old expansion joints with new ones.
On the first day of imposing restrictions, traffic piled up for kilometers on the left side of the ORR from Hebbal towards Tumakuru Road. Traffic police claimed that no heavy vehicles will be allowed on the road, but many trucks and other heavy vehicles were seen.
Chetan Gowda, a taxi driver, said, “I was not aware about traffic diversion. Assuming that on weekend traffic would be low, I took the ORR, but was stuck for over one hour. Traffic police should have informed the people well in advance about the diversions.” At BEL circle, on either side of the underpass, the traffic police barricaded the road and allowed only bike riders to go towards Muthyala Nagar. Rest of the vehicles were diverted towards Sadashivanagar side.
People who were travelling in city buses also suffered as buses were stuck for a long time in the traffic. Many passengers were seen getting down from the bus to walk. Sreedhara, a city bus passenger, said, “I wanted to go to Goraguntepalya. . As I was stuck for more than 40 minutes on the bus, instead of waiting for traffic to clear, I decided to get down from the bus and started walking. Like me, many people got down from the bus. On weekdays, people will suffer more as there will be more traffic on this road.”
Sachin S., a biker, said, “Authorities took many years to open this flyover for motorists. This flyover is of little use as it fails to accommodate heavy traffic coming from either side of the ORR. The lanes are narrow and cannot have more traffic. Now, authorities have closed the road for repair work. They should plan other alternatives to clear the congestion on this stretch of the ORR.”
Police have maintained that they have taken several measures to inform the public about the traffic diversion in advance. DCP traffic of West Division Kuldeep Kumar R. Jain said, “Saturday being the first day of closure of the flyover, many motorists were unaware of the diversions through social media, display of banners at the different junctions and other forms. Considering the safety of the motorists, repair works had to be taken up and the SWR had sought five days. During the closure of the flyover, we are not allowing heavy vehicles on this road.” The official said that over 75 home guards and additional traffic police personnel have been deployed at various places to divert traffic.
“Nowadays, a majority of the people look for Google maps while travelling in the city limits. As usual, we had approached the officials concerned in Google to show on alternatives available to travel from Hebbal side towards Goraguntepalya on the map,” he added.
