The Varthur-Sarjapur road joins the ORR as one of the most congested stretches in Bengaluru

A senior traffic police officer said the stretch between Varthur Kodi and Sarjapur Road joined the 17.1-km stretch of Outer Ring Road between Silk Board Junction and KR Puram Metro as one of the most congested roads in the city. | Photo credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.

For commuters on the nine-km stretch of National Highway-35 between Varthur Kodi and Sarjapur-Ambalipura Road, the journey is an exercise in overcoming one hurdle after another. Open canals run along the road, mounds of earth occupy non-existent footpaths, thick clouds of dust induce coughing fits and commuters are forced to constantly maneuver around potholes along this busy stretch of East Bengaluru.

While the recent incident of school children fighting in buses for hours exposed the daily suffering of commuters in this locality amid crumbling road infrastructure, a recent analysis of traffic congestion in Bengaluru revealed that this state highway is now among the most congested stretches in the city.

A senior traffic police officer confirmed to The Hindu that this stretch (between Varthur Kodi and Sarjapur Road) has joined the 17.1 km Outer Ring Road (ORR) stretch between Silk Board Junction and KR Puram Metro as one of the most congested roads in the city. what more In a few days, the congestion on SH-35 exceeded according to an officer at ORR.

“When congestion data is collected, it’s not just the main corridor that takes into account traffic volume. Connecting roads are also factored into the final length of congestion,” the officer explained. “As even smaller roads are congested at all points of the day and movement is slowed down, travel times in the area have increased manifold. This has led to high volumes on other roads,” he explained.

The police officer explained why he is overtaking the ORR that the ORR stretch witnesses rush hour traffic while it is non-existent on weekends. Unlike ORR, traffic on SH-35 is continuous throughout the day, making it notorious.

Limited infrastructure

The locality, which falls under the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, hosts dozens of housing complexes and more than 20 top schools, making it a bustling residential area that also houses various tech companies.

Narendra Rao, a resident of Gunjur village, puts it this way: “While there are skyscraper apartment complexes with thousands of vehicles owned by these residents, the road infrastructure is very limited. The roads that do exist are extremely narrow and cannot handle the growing number of vehicles.”

The entire nine-kilometer stretch, with the barrier a few kilometers closer to Sarjapur Road, is dotted with large craters and there are no road signs at some intersections, such as the Rama Temple near the Gunjur bus stand.

Three choke points

The nine-km stretch has mainly three choke points: the junction near Varthur police station, the Gunjur-Mugulur road junction and a point near the Muthasandra main road junction near Varthur Lake. There are no traffic lights at all these junctions and the movement of vehicles is manually controlled throughout the day by the traffic police and local residents.

Prasanna Bhat, a Varthur resident who works as a traffic volunteer, explained that the expressway is a key link in the eastern suburbs and that the stretch is used by all heavy vehicles. This coupled with hundreds of school buses and local vehicles makes this stretch a high density road.

“With ongoing civil works and the poor condition of the road, the movement of vehicles is slow, which naturally creates traffic jams,” he said. Worse, however, is that the slow traffic on this section has a ripple effect on the following sections.

Clogged connecting roads

There are more than eight major connecting routes on the state highway that converge a large number of vehicles on the highway. These key connecting stretches include Hosahalli Road, Balagere Main Road, Gunjur-Mugalur Road, Gunjur-Doddakanelli Road and Gunjur-Balagere Road.

Most of these sections are narrower, some even exceeding 20 to 25 feet when traveling inland. In addition, these are the roads that are loaded to the maximum, because most of the apartment complexes are located on these sections.

Naturally, when the national highways are choked at key junctions, these smaller roads with high volumes of vehicles experience prolonged congestion many times over 1.5 km, especially during peak hours.

Sidewalks and drains

While motorists bear the brunt of traffic, residents are left in the lurch with limited or no pedestrian infrastructure along the stretch, especially near Varthur Police Station.

Narrating his ordeal, Rohan, a pedestrian, said, “It takes five minutes to cross the road from one end to the other and walking on the stretch is impossible as the footpaths are either littered with piles of mud or the drains are not covered with slabs.

Adding to the problems is a significant amount of airborne dust as civil works continue. In many places, walkers have to climb up piles of mud and then descend down to walk the section.

In addition, there is considerable civil negligence, cables lying around, uncovered sewers, undisplaced construction material and dumped construction debris.

However, this condition has existed for over a year, with the Karnataka Road Development Corporation (KRDCL) delaying two civic works: the Varthur Kodi flyover and widening of SH-35.

While the project was launched in 2019, there has been limited implementation on the ground. The original completion date for the project was 2021. However, according to GBA sources, the ground work is yet to pick up pace.

Meanwhile, Lokhande Snehal Sudhakar, Additional Commissioner, East City Corporation, told The Hindu, “There was a problem with land acquisition, but now we are issuing TDRs to the property owners. Meanwhile, there are several plots who are demanding cash compensation, which has to be approved and processed by KRDCL.”