Bangalore-Mysore highway to get elevated roads
The Bangalore-Mysore State highway (Karnataka State Highway-17) is likely to get elevated roads at few prime junctions of Ramanagara, Channapatna, Maddur and Mandya which would ensure smooth traffic flow in this stretch.
The State Public Works Department (PWD) has been planning to build elevated roads at these towns from the past few years. Currently, the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) is working on a proposal of developing four-lane elevated roads at the key junctions along the SH-17.
The KRDCL would shortly submit a proposal to the Karnataka government with regard to the project, revealed Mr. R Jai Prasad, who is among the Board of Directors of KRDCL.
Increasing traffic and travel time
In the past 1-2 years, the road connecting the state’s capital Bangalore with the state’s cultural capital Mysore has been seeing a tremendous rise in traffic in the recent times. As of now, the regular traffic is estimated to be around 70,000 to 80,000 passenger car units (PCU) per day. In 2006 the PCU estimated on this road stood at 25,000 to 30,000 per day.
Owing to the rising number of vehicles on the stretch, increasing population and the fast developments happening day by day, the time taken to travel between Bangalore and Mysore has increased. On an average, it takes at least three hours for one to reach Mysore from Bangalore through the SH-17.
The road widening in 2006 had cut the travel time from Bangalore to Mysore from three hours 30 minutes to two hours 30 minutes. But because of the increasing traffic issues, currently it takes more than three hours 30 minutes to travel between the two cities. The time taken is even high at peak hours when traffic volume is high and during weekends when there is a significant rise in the number of commuters traveling to these cities.
Developments along the Bangalore-Mysore highway
The government had earlier proposed to widen the highway and make it a six-lane road but the PWD had opposed the proposal as it requires huge land acquisition on either side of the road. Already there are several projects under construction along the Bangalore-Mysore road corridor and many more are proposed, which makes it difficult to widen the road further. Therefore, in order to make space for the rising traffic, elevated roads have to be developed at major traffic bottlenecks.
The Bangalore-Mysore highway was transformed into a four-laned road around 7 years ago in 2006 under ‘annuity basis’. According to the proposal, the contractor had to implement the public project for which the government has to pay money to the contractor through fixed installments. The cost set for the project was about Rs 330 crore and the annuity term was eight years. The contractor has to maintain the road during the annuity period.
No service road
The main drawback of the Bangalore-Mysore highway is that there is no service road along the road at the prime towns. This forces even the localities to use the highway which slows down the traffic movement and is time-consuming.
The authorities, so far, did not plan to take up any upgradation work on this highway road due to the prevailing annuity contract between the government and the road contractor. However, the contract is going to expire in 2014, after which new upgradation works can be taken up, said official sources.
At present, the KRDCL has been conducting a detailed traffic study on the state highway 17. Based on the findings of this study, better plans would be made to ensure smooth traffic flow on the road, said sources.
