[patron]

Some good news at last.

The 140-km Bangalore-Mysore highway has often been ridiculed for being one of the worst commutes, the most common gripe of motorists being the massive number of speed breakers. These 'inverted potholes' are not a traffic-calming measure or part of road design, but a convenient arrangement by villagers and greedy eateries (reported by BM in the July 8, 2013 edition).

But in a bold move, the government has moved to end the nexus between local authorities and eateries and has got rid of 28 speed breakers on the stretch. Officials from the public works department and the police have promised to remove the remaining 58. Of the remaining humps, the majority are between Maddur and Srirangapatna. BM checked out the stretch on Saturday and found that the speed breakers had indeed been removed.

Source & Full Article: Bangalore Mirror

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by patron

Meanwhile, the state government plans to upgrade the existing highway into a six-lane National Highway. Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, PWD minister Dr H C Mahadevappa said, "The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will soon commence work on converting the existing highway between Bangalore and Bantwal (NH 275) into a six-lane road. The existing four-lane Bangalore-Mysore would be part of the proposed NH 275. The NHAI will acquire about 533 acres of land between Jnanabharati junction and Mysore Ring Road junction. Once the work is completed, there will be no need for speed breakers except at the junctions as per Road Congress guidelines."

This move to convert the 4 lane SH into a 6 lane NH is welcome. But then comes the toll fare which can be pretty high. Along with this move, the govt should think of developing an alternate road without toll so that it benefits all.

[ampere]

The biggest push back or stall that can happen is land acquisition for bypasses around towns. Lets see how the govt handles that. Because there exists significant political sphere of influence in these regions.

Originally Posted by suresh_gs

But the govt can construct flyovers at these town junctions thereby by passing them as seen in other National Highways.

They are BIG towns. Ramnagar, Mandya, Maddur. Flyovers wont do.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by ampere

The biggest push back or stall that can happen is land acquisition for bypasses around towns. .

But the govt can construct flyovers at these town junctions thereby by passing them as seen in other National Highways.

[ravib]

When i traveled to mysore in mid may (17th/18th weekend), from RVCE till Srirangapatna, i could count about 90 speed breakers

So roughly about 110+ speed breakers were there in a distance of 140 kms E2E !

This move may give some respite, though not fully !

-Ravi

[manjubp]

I do agree that many humps have gone. My last weekend travel to mysore, I observed that many of the humps have disappeared and many more have got re-designed. Still there are many more to go.

Now the eateries are placing the roadblocks to slow down the traffic :-(. Until Government pulls local authorities and imposes a ban, this issue will pop up in other shapes, like illegal parking, road barricades, etc.,

[mpksuhas]

Apart from speed breakers now there is a liberal usage of road barricades too on this route. While driving from Mysore to Bangalore last Sunday there was traffic pile-up at one place due to car breakdown, another due to an accident and some 3 places due to barricades.

[Napo]

Originally Posted by patron

Some good news at last.
__________________________________________________ _______
But in a bold move, the government has moved to end the nexus between local authorities and eateries and has got rid of 28 speed breakers on the stretch. Officials from the public works department and the police have promised to remove the remaining 58. Of the remaining humps, the majority are between Maddur and Srirangapatna. BM checked out the stretch on Saturday and found that the speed breakers had indeed been removed.

Police officials from Ramnagara and Mandya, who had assisted the PWD, say the 28 speed breakers were removed while asphalting the road. "We still have about 30 to 40 speed breakers between Maddur and Srirangapatna," a senior police official from Mandya told Bangalore Mirror. "Even though the accident rate has come down considerably, traffic density has shot up alarmingly. Further, with many tourist destinations dotting the stretch, there have been several deviations and junctions. Keeping all these issues in mind, we have retained a few speed breakers between Maddur and Srirangapatna."
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This is a fantastic news! Kudos to officials.There are lot of speed breakers between Mandya and Mysore. I stand corrected , but i believe this approx. 40 km stretch has the most number of speed breakers,if we take a speed breaker to kilometer ratio. So it would be great if authorities can clean up till Srirangapata. There was also a restaurant which is next to a traffic signal with "rumble strips" laid on the road. The restaurant was close to Mysore i guess. Wonder whether they will remove the signal and the speed breaker from there.

[sdp1975]

Most of the travel time lost on this road is while crossing the towns in between - Mandya , Channapatna and Ramnagar to name a few.

These places really need to be bypassed if the travel time between Bangalore and Mysore is to be reduced. 6 laning alone of the road won't help.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by patron

Some good news at last.
__________________________________________________ _______
The NHAI will acquire about 533 acres of land between Jnanabharati junction and Mysore Ring Road junction. Once the work is completed, there will be no need for speed breakers except at the junctions as per Road Congress guidelines."

Just 533 acres ? Quite impossible to widen this road all the way till Mysore Ring Road junction by just acquiring 533 acres. Being a regular on this route, Channapatna and Mandya is the worst towns to drive through.
The roads are cramped, illegal parking, people refuse to use the sidewalks, bullock carts, cows et all.
I hope they build bridges over these small towns and bypass them completely.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

These places really need to be bypassed if the travel time between Bangalore and Mysore is to be reduced. 6 laning alone of the road won't help.

The govt can construct flyovers at these junctions thereby by passing the towns. 6 laning is not the solution.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by patron

Bangalore-Mysore highway loses some of its humps

While its welcome news, I hope the speed limit is enforced strictly.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

I hope they build bridges over these small towns and bypass them completely.

The plan to divert traffic in Mandya is almost 5 years. The proposal is to either bypass or built flyover. Some want bypass (more commercial area) and some want flyover (no loss of agriculture land). There is no consensuses and in fact there have been few clashes over this in last 5 years.
Hopeful NHAI will end this.

[mpksuhas]

The current road which crosses Ramanagar is actually a bye-pass. This was constructed around 1998 I guess. I guess the same is true for Chanapattana too.

As with everywhere, more than road width it is the road condition and road manners which is major irritants I guess.

[Latheesh]

I think current road bypass almost all towns in this route. Issue is new commercial establishments came on new road which made things difficult.

Even with these many speed/back breakers people drive like maniacs on this stretch.

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by ampere

The biggest push back or stall that can happen is land acquisition for bypasses around towns. Lets see how the govt handles that. Because there exists significant political sphere of influence in these regions.

They are BIG towns. Ramnagar, Mandya, Maddur. Flyovers wont do.

The way out is to build by pass around these towns. But with this the cost shoots up for land acquisitions and red tapes associated with it. This will invariably delay project and costs increase too.

I bet the toll would be much lesser than the NICE from Tumkur road to Hosur Road, a whopping 155 bucks for a bumpy ride