[finneyp]

Traffic is getting worse day by day!
A normal 1 hour commute from Sarjapur Road to Hennur via ORR takes 2 hours now :(

[itwasntme]

Aero India: Airport commuters advised to take alternative routes

https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le69191878.ece

[nagr22]

I had to catch a flight at 1AM this morning so left home from whitefield yesterday around 9 PM and the taxi driver took the the Bagalur route as the Hebbal route was showing an estimate of 2Hr vs 1h 30 min for Bagalur route. Once we reached the narrow village road parallel to runway (about 5 to 6km from terminal), there was crawling bumper to bumper traffic all the way till we crossed terminal 1! It was utter chaos and the usual behavior of driving on the wrong side when your lane is jammed led to even more chaos. To make matters worse, the signal in the three way junction where vehicles merge onto the Airport terminal road was blinking orange and was causing gridlocks with no one having patience to let others pass. Inspite of leaving home 4.5hrs before scheduled time, I arrived airport with 2 hours left for departure and was nervous whether I will catch the flight or not. Thankfully mine was one of the 1st international flights of the day and there wasn't much queue in immigration nor security.

I am not sure if the Airshow has got anything to do with this, but it is good for travellers to keep sufficient buffer if they have flights to catch this week.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by nagr22

I am not sure if the Airshow has got anything to do with this, but it is good for travellers to keep sufficient buffer if they have flights to catch this week.

There was a political wedding in palace grounds yesterday where 40,000 people apparently attended. BTP had issued an advisory on it and heard that whole area was jammed up. So all airport traffic from east would have taken the bagalur route. Lot of people missed flights. Good that you had kept enough buffer.

[krish11]

Hi - As part of the re-development of Cantonment railway station two of Bengaluru Cantonment station platforms were to be shut for 92 days from Sep last year. With Platforms 2 and 3 set to become non-operational, the stoppage of the following 44 trains at the station has been eliminated for 92 days, said an official release from Southern Railway (SR).

Any idea if the Chennai bound Shatabdi (12028) is skipping Cantonment station or is stopping as scheduled ? Sorry in advance if this is OT.

[shankar.balan]

I have never seen traffic as bad as today. On the KIAL road right from Hebbal onwards.

We had to go to the Airport. Had it been avoidable, I would most certainly have avoided it. We left with plenty of time to spare. We do not subscribe to this ‘last minute’ nonsense.

But today, it seemed, every single die was loaded against us. The traffic was a snail-crawl from Hebbal all the way up to the Airshow Entrance gates at Yelahanka Air Base.

It took us 1 hour to cover that 18-20km distance, and there must have been many travellers in a very uncomfortable situation like we were.

Luckily, we were in my EV, so Zero Tailpipe emissions added to the atmosphere from my side when we were at a standstill or at a crawl.

Luckily, we also ‘sped’ to the airport as soon as we crossed the Yelahanka gate. We were lucky to get my wife to the airport on time.

And then, at the toll gate, there was a ‘Great Highness’ who was negotiating the non-applicability of toll to his exalted personage and waving some sort of ID tag at the attendant. This caused further chaos because another three cars and I had to reverse out and go to the next booth.

I cannot even begin to understand why we honest tax-paying members of the public are tortured in this manner by our public servants and the government and toll tax authorities and the highway authorities, all at once.

Our authorities have absolutely NO Business disrupting the lives of all of us general tax-paying public in the name of this Airshow and the rampant, idiotic mismanagement of traffic and total lack of any kind of preparedness for the event.

All that the cops were doing today was standing about looking like a bunch of useless and worthless fools. ‘Bangalore’s Finest’ are an absolute waste of air and space in my opinion.

Honestly, these kinds of experiences really make one lament the situation in our country.

Will it ever improve? Well, that’s anybody’s guess.

The silver lining is that my wife actually caught her flight, albeit by the skin of her teeth. Last person boarded she said.

End of Rant.

[ashivas89]

The best route to take to reach the airport from Whitefield (all parts east of Hoodi) is:

Whitefield-Kadugodi-Kannamangala-Hoskote-STRR-Devanahalli-KIAL

On my most recent trip, about 2 weeks ago, I left on a Friday afternoon at 3:15 PM and was at the airport in 50 mins flat. This was despite my driving at a leisurely pace not exceeding 100 Km/h at any point. The return journey took 10 mins more because of the notorious Hope farm junction I had to cross to get home.

My record is 45 mins flat for a late night flight.

Sure this route adds about 15% to the overall distance, but the sheer peace of mind you get in return is priceless. Your car will thank you for it too.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by ashivas89

Whitefield-Kadugodi-Kannamangala-Hoskote-STRR-Devanahalli-KIA

Agree!

But hey, Shhhhh…don’t mention the STRR!

I’m just kidding - this morning I saw an article in the newspaper about various options from different parts of the city to get to KIA in view of the aeroindia show and the STRR one was conspicuous by its absence!

Anyone on the eastern side of Bangalore too can take STRR via Hoskote and get to Devanahalli and the KIA, the only pain being K R Puram, but that is usually manageable (it’s a bigger pain in the return direction since the vegetable market is that side).

Alternatively one can take Hennur-Bagalur route too.

[ashivas89]

Originally Posted by NPV

Agree!

But hey, Shhhhh…don’t mention the STRR!

Sigh, I know what you mean..

As its popularity increases, adverts for property along the STRR have already started pouring in

I just hope it remains a ring road and doesn't become another ORR.

The famous line from Gladiator comes to mind. Only I have replaced Rome with the STRR.

“There was once a dream that was the STRR. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter”.

[ajmat]

Returned home from Chennai on last night. Left Chennai at 2.30 PM and reached KR Puram by around 9 PM. KR Puram to Indirangar BDA complex took a good 1 hour. Avoided another hour by turning off and driving through Cambridge Layout to Victoria Road

[GeeTee TSI]

Day 1 of the Aero Show (not even the day for public ticket holders) and the flyover as well as the service road (from Yelahanka railway underpass) was a grinding halt. To see the smooth and dense flowing elevated flyover having standstill traffic made me shudder.



My two wheeler took 35 mins to reach Bagalur cross (a 6 km journey) and unlike ORR, this side of town does not see such 'pace'. Google maps showed (wrongly) 15 minutes just as I was leaving so do not trust the ETA without adequate buffers. Take Bellary road at your own risk this entire week.

[Jazzybala]

Hope they are sending the airport traffic on the opposite side lane that has been coned off for this event?

[redcruiser]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

There was a political wedding in palace grounds yesterday where 40,000 people apparently attended. BTP had issued an advisory on it and heard that whole area was jammed up. So all airport traffic from east would have taken the bagalur route. Lot of people missed flights. Good that you had kept enough buffer.

Imagine you book the costly Kumbh tickets and then you miss the flight.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Jazzybala

Hope they are sending the airport traffic on the opposite side lane that has been coned off for this event?

That doesn’t matter at all because the convergence point of all the streams of traffic, is exactly at the second entry gate of the Air Show at the Yelahanka Air base. This is what I observed on Saturday. So with this ‘coning’ they are literally just kicking the can further down the road as is typical of us. Which is why I made the comment about the lack of proper thought, execution and management.

[supertinu]

Folks, it would help to hear from others on best route to take to attend the Aero Show. I am planning on going on 13th. Since I live in whitefield, would it help go via budhigere in place of hebbal? Any pointers on parking locations would help too.