Work of Signal Free Corridor from Dr Raj Kumar Road to Fountain Circle to Kick off from Next Month

Work on eight-lane corridor on the dreaded stretch from Okalipuram Junction to Fountain Circle to start next month

Here’s some good news for harried commuters and motorists who travel from Rajajinagar,Vijayanagar, Basaveshwaranagar and other areas to the city centre in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The BBMP is going to begin work on the much-awaited eight-lane corridor between Okalipuram Junction and Fountain Circle from next month.

Estimated cost: `115 crore

The project, which was initiated in November 2008 by urban development minister S Suresh Kumar, was delayed owing to technical problem in the tender process.

• First, the zigzag stretches of the road — there are four turns on the stretch that cause problems (will be set right). Owing to the road curvature, buses block the entire traffic flow and other vehicles queue up behind them. 
• The second part is the heavy traffic congestion from Srirampura, which is a major bottleneck on the stretch,” a BBMP official said. According to a survey, the stretch witnesses high-density traffic  movement. It is 14,791 passenger car unit (PCU) in the morning and 14,900 PCU in the evening and 9,963 PCU on the platform road.

Shifting cables, pipes

Regarding the shifting of utilities on the stretch, the officer said the BBMP had written several letters to all the agencies.  “As far as the BWSSB is concerned, new water and sewerage pipes will be installed first and the existing ones will be removed. The 220kv line, which had been laid underground by the KPTCL, will not be shifted. The agency has agreed to postpone the laying of the 66kv power line

until the project is completed,” officer said.

Quid pro quo with railways

The BBMP is acquiring 12,818 sqmt (3 acre) of railway land. “The railways has agreed to give land only on the condition that the BBMP should provide alternative land in the city centre near the railway tracks. The BBMP is providing one acre near Binny Mills and one acre near the collegiate education department. We are also constructing the compound wall for the railways,” the official said.

Technical bid put off

Simplex Infrastructures Private Limited and NCC Private Limited have qualified in the pre-qualification tender and the second stage tender is under way. BBMP engineer-in-chief BT Ramesh said the opening of the technical bid, scheduled for February 17, has been postponed by 10 days. “The work will start in March and will be completed in the stipulated time,” he said.

Areial View of Metro Reach-3

1. Status:Track Laying in Progress
2. Tentative Date of Operation: December 2012
3. Route:Peenya to Malleshwarm

Proposed Kathriguppe TTMC toresolve traffic woes on ORR

It will bring expansive malls and multiplexes to Banashankari area

The frequent traffic jams on outer ring road (ORR) caused by buses moving in and out of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus depot at Kathriguppe may be a thing of the past in a couple of years as the corporation's proposed depot here will have grade-separated entry and exit from and to the ORR.

The BMTC has proposed to build an expansive Travel and Transit Management Centre (TTMC) on its five acres of land on which its Depot 13 is located at Kathriguppe under public-private partnership (PPP).

The busy ORR normally gets clogged in the early hours when buses come out of the depot as well as during shift change hours in the afternoon and closing hours during the night.

The depot is located on the left-hand side of the ORR (from Mysore Road towards Banashankari) and caters to bus services from surrounding areas, including Padmanabhanagar, Kathriguppe, Hosakerehalli and Srinagar. As a result, buses come in and move out on both directions of the ring road.

To make use of the land available there, the corporation has conceived of building a TTMC that can house commercial spaces, a bus depot and a bus station.

The estimated project cost of the TTMC is about Rs. 155 crore.

The private partner, who offers the maximum annual rent (concession fee) over and above the minimum reserve fee of Rs. 75 lakh, will get the right to design, finance, develop and be in possession of the commercial area for 30 years.

While the concessionaire has to construct and handover the depot and bus station within two years from the award of the contract, the commercial space should come up within five years of the commencement of the contract. These periods are inclusive of the 30-year concession period.

COMMERCIAL COMPLEX

Kathriguppe and Banashankari localities, which are devoid of any mega commercial hub, thus will get one with the proposed TTMC. BMTC has said the concessionaire can develop a hypermarket with 1.5 lakh sq ft area, discount stores with 1 lakh sq ft, food court, multiplexes (six screens), other retail and commercial uses for TTMC, such as ATMs and chemist shops. In all, there is provision to construct 3.93 lakh sq ft commercial space, the corporation has said.

MINIMUM OBLIGATION

Even as the BMTC has offered the land for the project, the concessionaire has to build and hand over infrastructure required for the depot and bus station. The minimum development requirements are 12 bus platforms; 15 idle parking slots, grade-separated pre-cast box type entry (from J.P. Nagar/ Padmanabhanagar/Banashankari) and exit (towards Mysore Road) for BMTC buses and other minimum requirements for a bus station, including parking space.

The depot to be constructed by the concessionaire should cater to halting and maintenance of 150 buses with repair bays, fuel station, cafeteria, retiring rooms and an administrative block.

The corporation is expecting to finalise the contract next month and the work is likely to commence in a couple of months, according to a senior official.

CM writes to railway minister for Commuter Rail System for Bangalore

Chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda has made a strong plea to the Centre to implement Commuter Rail System (CRS) for the Bangalore metropolitan region to improve suburban commuting services in the city.

Gowda has written a letter to Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, recalling the discussions he had with Trivedi during the latter’s visit to Bangalore to inaugurate the Metro’s services.

“The data relating to the metropolitan region of Bangalore justifies starting of commuter rail.

The ministry of railways is requested to announce starting of commuter rail in the railway budget 2012-13,” he said.

“The CRS will disperse the habitations from the densely populated city area to destinations outside Bangalore city, viz Anekal, Malur, Devanahalli, Tumkur, Nelamangala and Bidadi. The CRS will be seamlessly integrated with other mass rapid transport systems like Metro, mono-rail, high-speed rail and bus rapid transit system. This will help in bringing people to the central business district in 60 minutes to 90 minutes. The lines could be totally new or railways could spare corridors if the same is available on a long-term basis,” Gowda has written in the letter.
The chief minister has urged the railway minister to take up the work immediately on

Bangalore-Kengeri-Kanakapura-Chamarajanagara project, which has already been sanctioned and surveyed.
Also, the letter seeks to remind Trivedi of his assurance to start integrated rail coach factory in Kolar.

“The deputy commissioner of Kolar has identified 1,000 acres of land at Eldur and Edarur village of Srinivasapur taluk and Jaderi village of Kolar taluk. Once official request is received from ministry of railways, further land acquisition proceedings will start,” the letter says.

Public Notice on Toll

Japanese push to Bangalore-Chennai expressway

The proposed 330-km Bangalore–Chennai expressway, which will be part of the PRIDe corridor, received a big push by Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), which said the detailed project report may be ready by September.
The project, which promises to be the ‘pride of India’, is expected to turn South India into the country’s industrial hub.
At the conference on ‘Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for

Strategic Urban Development in India Cities’, Yasunori Watanabe, president, JCCI, said: “The PRIDe corridor connecting the major industrial areas in South India needs to be taken up urgently. The most important among these is the Bangalore–Chennai expressway, which, once completed, will reduce travel time from seven hours to five hours. This means at least 30% reduction in time taken to travel to and fro.”

He said there was urgent need to improve the city’s infrastructure, especially transport, as private investors were eyeing Bangalore and South India was being considered as the future industrial hub.

According to him, the stretches that need immediate attention are Mysore Road between BHEL signal and Nayandahalli and Muslim Memorial ground and BHEL signal, Whitefield Road (in and around International Tech Park) and Tumkur Road (near Yeshwantpur railway station).
He called for rapid improvement in the traffic manners of the city’s two-wheeler and autorickshaw drivers to ease congestion. ITS technology could solve these issues but the government has to reform its policies, Watanabe said.

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which also attended the conference, said it would launch a survey on introduction of ITS in major cities.

“This will be taken up in March and completed in July,” announced Taro Okawa of JICA.

“We are also looking at possibilities of financial as well as technical assistance for the construction of peripheral ring road and ITS for highway transportation management system and transportation management system,” he added.

Will e-toll ease traffic on BIA road?

With just three days to go for the toll booths to become operational at Sadarhalli Gate on National Highway-7 on the way back from the airport, taxi associations and airport goers are apprehensive that the exercise would lead to a huge traffic chaos at the toll junction leading to further delays in the movement of traffic on this busy road.

But the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is beginning toll collection from February 10, has said it is planning to introduce Electronic Toll Collection System, which will allow vehicle to pass through the toll booth without having to wait in queue to pay the toll physically. But long queues at the toll booths are the most likely scenario as over five lakh vehicles use Bellary Road every day. Airport taxis make around 49,000 trips daily. Though NHAI has said that vehicles heading to the airport from Bengaluru need not pay toll to avoid delays for passengers in a hurry, the move is not likely to solve traffic chaos, say experts.

“The NHAI has erected only four toll booths at Sadarhalli Gate and hundreds of vehicles will pass through the toll booths every minute. Each vehicle will take sometime to pass through the toll booth. “This will definitely create a traffic snarl. Lorries and inter-state buses too queue up at the toll booths, making it difficult for smaller vehicles to pass through. Any NHAI move will not help ease the movement of traffic. The NHAI has placed toll booths right after the airport to generate big revenues from airport taxis,” said traffic expert M.N. Srihari.

But NHAI project director R.K. Gupta begs to differ. “We are talking to various taxi associations and coming up with a revolutionary ETCS. It will eliminate the need to stop at the booths to pay the toll. There are around 3,000 airport taxis; they can enroll themselves and use the electronic debit system. It is already in place,” he added.