A Flyover to Nowhere

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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Why Can't Manholes Be At Road Level?

The city may have earned many flattering monikers such as garden city, IT capital, start-up capital and the like, but when it comes to handling basic issues such as roads, drains, and power supply the city still seems stuck with 18th century methods and technology.

A look at the way manholes have been built on or near the roads is a case in point. They are rarely at the road level and some protrude almost one feet above the roads, posing danger to motorists during nights and when the streets get flooded due to rains.

I am no civic expert but I don’t understand why manholes cannot be built at road levels or why there is no uniform standard across the city. 

The manhole near the lane where I live is located on a gradient and stands nearly a foot above the road level. It is close to a storm water drain and further shrinks the width of an already narrow road. Motorists have to avoid it, thereby leaving space for only one four-wheeler to pass at a time. 

Thus the spot becomes a rite of passage for motorists, especially during peak hours, as they often indulge in brinkmanship to get the first chance to pass. Those coming down the gradient feel they have the divine right to pass first and those climbing the gradient too harbour the same sentiment with equal vigour. 

High decibel honking, angry gesticulation and even heated arguments break out and the traffic on narrow lane gets held up. This is a common scene around 9-10 am when people are rushing to work. And I am sure this is not an isolated case in the city. There may be many such manholes which stand out like sore thumbs and hamper traffic movements, thanks to shoddy workmanship.

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Bangalore Auto Drivers' Manifesto

Politeness is as alien to us as a pothole-free road or a well-paved litter free footpath in the city. If you find a polite auto driver, then you might as well buy a lottery ticket and be assured that lady luck will smile on you.

We strongly believe in the credo 'taking someone for a ride' and have even applied for an ISO certification in this regard. However, the insiders there have cautioned that we are in for a stiff competition from our counterparts in Chennai and Delhi. So we have to be on our toes and keep thinking about innovative ways to implement our credo.

Meters are meant to be ornamental, but sometimes we have to oblige pesky customers, who think they are doing something smart. Little do they know that our meters don't run as per distance covered, but on jumps and jerks the vehicle experiences on hitting potholes and speed breakers.

The fare meter works in different ways vis-a-vis potholes and speed breakers. As for potholes it is inversely proportional - the deeper the pothole, the higher the quantum jump in the meter. Whereas in case of speed breakers it is directly proportional. And in this regard we specially thank BBMP, BWSSB, telecom companies for tirelessly working round the clock to ensure that we are never away from potholes. We also thank the citizens of Namma Bengaluru for being generous in erecting unauthorised speed breakers every 20-30 feet distance on bylanes and that too more than double the Government stipulated height.  

We are hypersensitive towards distances and have a narrow range of 2 to 5 kilometres. Anything less or beyond is treated as if the customer has asked for a free ride to Mars or Pluto. This gesture (of contemptuously driving away without any basic courtesy of saying 'yes' or 'no') has earned us a global patent and you will not find it among drivers in any other city. In case if you come across any auto driver from other city trying to imitate us, please bring it to our notice (for contact number you can check out our website) so that we can begin legal proceedings.

Although traffic police have stipulated timings for charging one-and-half and double fares we believe that time is a continuum and hence cannot be compartmentalised. Our excuses to charge extra fare may range from somewhat plausible (we may not get passengers while returning) to whatever we feel like at the moment (it is raining ... lot of traffic ... I have headache ... and the like).

It is our birthright to stalk passengers alighting from trains and outstation buses. Also the right to exercise it much more aggressively during odd hours and quote fares which may well be higher than what the passengers may have paid for their train or bus journey.

Lastly, we have every right to enjoy pleasant afternoons by indulging in a siesta on the back seat of autos and woe betide if anyone tries to wake us!

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