A cartoon is doing rounds on Twitter about two archaeologists in 3000 AD visiting the spot where the unfinished Ejipura to Kendriya Sadan flyover lies and wondering, “Nobody really understands why they were built.” The flyover has been in the making for over five years and even now nobody has any clue regarding its completion. It is a sore testimonial of the shortcomings in the execution of infrastructure projects.
With the traffic volumes at Ejipura junction and the subsequent Sony Signal in
Koramangala, where 100 Feet Road intersects the Inner Ring Road, witnessing an exponential increase, the then state government in 2014 decided to build a flyover to provide a signal-free
traffic flow and decongest Koramangala.
Kolkata-based firm Simplex Infrastructure Limited was
given the work order for the flyover and the work began in 2017. The motorists began feeling the heat when the middle section of the Inner Ring Road was
barricaded with tin sheets to erect flyover pillars.
The carriage space got nearly halved and the travel
time doubled for traversing between Ejipura junction and Sony Signal. During the
evening peak hours, when the offices at Embassy Golf Links Technology Park near
Domlur empty out, the six-lane Inner Ring road has four rows of cars moving in
each direction, with two-wheelers snaking through whatever remaining space.
After the Ejipura signal, the jostle for restricted
carriage space begins. Incessant honking, brinkmanship and big vehicle bullying
smaller ones happen.
For Koramangala and Ejipura residents, the dust
emanating from the pillar construction and the loud noise of earth movers and
cranes disrupted their day-to-day life. Many had to keep their doors and
windows permanently shut.
The first deadline was 2019, but like most
infrastructure projects Simplex too failed to honour it. Hardly any eyebrows
were raised and motorists on the Inner Ring Road went through their daily grind
in a ‘grin and bear it’ mode.
However, what followed rattled even diehard sceptics. Simplex
missed many more deadlines and the company’s mounting debts pushed its 28 lenders, including some prominent banks, to classify it as a ‘non-performing asset’ in
2020. The BBMP was left with no option but to terminate the contract.
Another stumbling block was transferring defence and
private land for the flyover and clearance to cut trees. These issues have
still not been resolved.
All work came to a grinding halt with the unfinished pillars
standing out like sore thumbs. Earth movers and other movable assets soon
disappeared, leaving behind the remnants of a half-finished flyover. The tin
sheets put up as barricades were also subsequently removed.
This status quo has remained for over two years and
these unfinished structures have gathered moss during monsoon and pose a hazard to motorists.
BBMP has been making efforts to kick-start the stalled
project, but it has so far not been successful. The response to the fresh
tenders in August last year was poor with only two firms participating and they
too failed to qualify the eligibility criteria. Hence the flyover's fate continues to remain in limbo.
The effectiveness of flyovers in easing the traffic flow has been open to heated debate. They were initially seen as a magic wand as they helped vehicles move past the traffic jams, but the city planners soon realized that they merely shifted the snarl from one place to another and created new bottlenecks. Instead, transport experts moot that the policymakers should make public transport more effective and attractive to users to decongest the cities.
However, flyovers continue to find favour with the politician-contractor lobby as it means involvement of big money and kickbacks.
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