Team-BHP - How old businesses suffer when new highways, bypasses & flyovers are made

I drive from Bangalore to Mysore on a weekly basis.

To me, the new elevated highway is an impossible dream, which only the current central govt would have thought of executing. Hats off to Mr. Pratap Simha and Nitin Gadkari saheb for making a dream (which no one else dreamt) come true!

The previous Mysore Highway was a pain. It was expanded from 2 lanes (there were no dividers at many stretches) to four lanes during the 2002-2006 time frame and experts had warned that it would not cater to the demand. It was only serving the purpose of politicians and influenced elite who had land around the highway (or the highway planned around the land).

This highway remains encroached by several towns and villages and makes the Bangalore to Mysore drive a 4.5 to 5.5 hour affair. If You take a break, add another 30-60 minutes. And mostly, the breaks were compelled due to ladies and kids needing nature's break or hunger due to exhaustion. Apart from Tatte Idli and few others, most of the restaurants were sub-standard with no hygiene and dirty restrooms. It was a compromise anyways. Only the best ones can sustain.

This highway is very important for people travelling to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. If you ever drive from Bangalore to Ooty, Coimbatore or Cochin, you must agree that the journey is very tiring because of bad and unpredictable roads with unsafe junctions and crossings with bullock carts, cycles, scooters and tractors crossing out of the blue. Besides, a lots of stray dogs die on a daily basis because they stray from the villages to the unfenced old highway. I've personally lost near and dear ones to accidents due to this deadly highway.

95% people travelling by Road only worry about reaching fast and safe. The new wide open highway which was cut across hilly terrains take you to Mysore in 3-3.5 hours today with many stretches work in progress. It promises to make the distance under 2 hours when fully done, with fenced wide open 12 lanes including service lanes, it's how the inter-city highways should be - with only travellers and motor vehicles interest in mind.

One can drive safely at 80-120 kmph given your car is safely rated for the same. There are enough no. of detours where travellers can detour to take a break or reach nearby towns. For the remaining 5%, the old highway is still open. With so many populous intersections, it remains risky to drive above 60 kmph.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GS300 (Post 5422788)

What is happening at Bidadi is going to happen at Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya and all such towns along the Bangalore - Mysore road. Many businesses are going to face a tough time. But I guess these are cycles of business. They need to find ways to lure people out of the highway, or relocate to near exits etc. Or maybe when the proper Exits are constructed, hopefully there will be ones that goes to Bidadi and other such towns.

On the specific topic of the Mysore Expressway, I think it is just the matter of us getting the orientation right-The expressway has drastically altered the landscape and hence we are confused as to where we are. Not all of the exits are properly marked yet. But having said that, the greenfield part of the expressway are primarily the bypasses and the rest of the road does mostly align to the old road. So if someone wants to get into Bidadi, Ramanagara, Maddur, Mandya etc, it is only the matter of identifying where the bypasses start and exit at that point. Having done innumerable drives while the construction is happening, getting into any of the towns is fairly easy and quick provided you do it at the point the bypasses start. These are already marked and even there today. Exits from the bypasses into the towns are limited and not fully ready yet.

On the larger topic, agree with the view that the businesses that survive will be the ones that quickly realign to the new reality and identify ways to attract the crowd away from their fixed route.

I am very happy that the highway by-passes the chaotic towns of Bidadi, Chennapatna and Ramanagar.
As a Mysorean, I feel this is the best infrastructure development that has happened apart from railway double laning and resumption of air services under UDAAN Scheme.

Its imperative that most of the hotels right next to the Old highway lose some of their business, but there would be a food park adjoining the highway somewhere in between Bidadi and Ramanagara.

Finally, I can drive with some peace to Mysore and not really worry about the local traffic ("Sunday Breakfast and Lunch (Kamat Lokaruchi)") hindering the progress every few kilometers.

Maybe, we could generalize it and then we will start to see this behavior in cities too. The existing businesses in Cities are also a victim of Law & societal changes.

I completely shifted to ordering things on Zepto, Swiggy & amazon, just to avoid the parking issues and the tickets getting issued by the cops. The way the cops are targeting private vehicles [In Hyderabad] just by holding a smart phone camera is beyond imagination. I don't even visit the regular hotels anymore. If needed, ill just order.

The main intention of the new highway is to enable fast travel between BLR - MYS . If the distance can be covered in 2 to 2.5 hrs, I do not mind missing food courts and restaurants. If at all I need to eat, I will exit the expressway into the nearby city, take the required break and get back on the road. The old highway is/was a nightmare with roads littered with eateries, predominantly of sub standard quality with respect to hygiene. And this resulted is so many bottlenecks along the way with cars parked on the highway side due to lack of parking at the restaurant/food court. It was frustrating. I just hope that the authorities do not succumb to local pressure and allow the locals to create gap in the median to enter the service road wherever there is a local eatery on the new expressway.

It would have been good if NHAI had purchased a couple of large swaths of land at strategic points on the either side of the expressway where they setup food courts and rent them out to establishments who wish to setup their outlet there.

I couldn't disagree more! Just take 2 major highways for example, Pune-Mumbai Expressway and Pune-Bangalore Highway. The expressway on the way to Mumbai has three designated food malls (two if you don't count that first dysfunctional one on the way to Mumbai) which have a booming business with almost all of the travelers halting at one place which has multiple restaurant options, ample parking, truck bays, clean restrooms, and has an overall sense of order, in stark comparison to what I would call an absolute cesspit which exists on Pune-Bangalore highway. Hotels with sparse occupancy, terrible food quality, restroom straight out of hellhole built up every few hundred meters with vehicles coming in and out, some parked on the highway blocking the traffic, and just overall sense of haphazardness and non order. I can't count more than half a dozen decent places on entire stretch from Pune till Kolhapur. If that's going to be the case why not have them all at the same place like expressway? Rest are more or less dead anyway!

Drove from Mysore recently door to door 3hrs with crusing at 80. The holiday ensured traffic within blore was sparse.
I loved every bit of the expressway. It is a much safer place to drive. As a family we are big fans of the Bidadi thatte idli but I would give it up in a heartbeat for a safer drive. The parking situation and restrooms at these places were in poor shape.

Alarmingly there were few food carts/hawkers on the expressway at locations where the barricades were either broken or not put up yet.
Folks still need to get used to disciplined expressway ettiquite. Saw a rolled over i10 grand and worse still a Celerio driving at ~70 on the fast lane in the wrong direction. It was moving in the same direction as me but on the other side of the divider. Saw another Swift dzire driving wrong direction at ~50kmph on the slow lane.

I am reminded of the town named Radiator Springs from the animated movie Cars. It was on Route 66, which was one of the main highways of USA running from Chicago to California before it slowly went under the radar and now just a minor road. All the small, beautiful towns and businesses along the way eventually shut down and is now just a romantic dream in Pixar's movies. Though this isn't that long a road, the effects would be the same for local businesses.

This is a sad but unavoidable story of growth and the realignment of transportation nerve centres. I hope the people of these towns realign their businesses and there is hope because of the population we have - that the old towns will still be well and inhabited (unlike USA where the population is sparce and completely relied on the travellers for making a living).

If the business/eatery is worth the visit, people will visit it even if it is located in a narrow bylane or on an out of the way route.

If its success was only due to a convenient location (and usually arrogant staff), then Darwin principles can't be avoided.

Also, as a commuter, my first preference is timely and safe journey from 'A' to 'B'. If the old highway can't ensure it, I don't think a plate of chaat/parantha/vada-pao can compensate for it.

Else, the governments world over would be setting up food stalls on the roads rather than modernising them.

I am one of the regulars between Bangalore and Mysore for almost couple of decades.

Here is what I have noticed, it all started with existing good old Maddur Tiffanies, one or two idli shop in Bidadi, Sharada Resturant (hotel Haripriya) in Mandya and Kamat Lokaruchi. All of them used to serve a decent food, at a cost which was marginally higher than what it used to cost in Mysore or Bangalore.

As time progress, more and more cars were seen on the road and so is number of restaurants on Bangalore Mysore highway. However the quality of food drastically went down south and the price went up very north. This is true on all the highways connecting Bangalore, whether towards Tirupati, Chennai or Mangalore. So many of regular commuters on Bangalore-Mysore HW, moved away from these restaurants and started to have our meals/breakfast either in Mysore or Bangalore.

Just to give you an example, a plate of Idli(2), vada(1) and coffee(~125ml), in decent restaurant in Bangalore would be between Rs50 to Rs 70/-. Last week at Hotel Swati on the way to Kolar, just outside Narasapura, I paid something like Rs.140/- wo tips, for very very average tasting breakfast and one of the worst coffee.

So I am for a safer and faster highway. I am sure the people who got impacted would find a way to survive and move on..

These are collaterals of growth but I have seen many of them to return in a modern avatar. For e.g. many dabbas have turned themselves into a garden restaurant or even a party- plot or marriage hall. Also they offer more than just dal roti. Chilli chicken and noddles can be ordered as well.
If you look closely there are still quite many dabbas on the way. The bigger problem lies with the family and new generation kids, who compel you to look for “the food street” or a starbucks or Mc’D. Many times I wish to stop at a dabba but decide against it for my son or may be even for a clean washroom. I genuinely miss the dabba style dal tadka and roti.