Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

[JD1]

Any news on Chinnapanahalli railway track road and Nallurahalli road leading to ITPL? Are they motorable now or still work in progress?

[ambivalent_98]

Lack of common sense at a railway crossing .....place Bayapanhalli Banaswadi

[binand]

Phew. My office has shifted to ORR (Panathur Road), so now I have the misfortune to take the Yemalur-Kadubeesanahalli link road daily. This stretch takes < 10 minutes by car or bike, but what 10 minutes! Not sure if my back can take it for much longer. The alternatives seem to me are OA Road > Tulsi Theatre > ORR (U-turn at Innovative) or Bellandur > Sakra Hospital > ORR - neither very appealing.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by binand

Yemalur-Kadubeesanahalli link road

There's hardly any road in the so called Kariyammana Agrahara road. Good luck with your commute. It gets really interesting after a bout of rain.

***

Been seeing some cop activity at ORR-Sarjapur Road signal in the evenings. If it's an attempt to contain the blatant signal jumping especially at the left turn from ORR to Sarjapur road, then this has to be made a usual practice.

[JD1]

Originally Posted by JD1

Any news on Chinnapanahalli railway track road and Nallurahalli road leading to ITPL? Are they motorable now or still work in progress?

Replying to myself to update on Chinnapanahalli road - still bad. Looks like last week's closure was for work around the drain/channel and not road :(

On the other hand, south bound Kadubeesanahalli underpass which was terrible (one more time) has been fixed. Let's see how long it lasts this time.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by binand

Phew. My office has shifted to ORR (Panathur Road), so now I have the misfortune to take the Yemalur-Kadubeesanahalli link road daily

Current condition of this road is largely due to the construction activity around that area.

Taking this road during rain is suicidal. Infact, it just rained heavily here at Kadubeesinahalli now. It may be best to avoid that route tomorrow.

[sandeepmohan]

Potential jam alert on ITPL Main Road.

Going towards ITPL and after hoodi, traffic was one way between Novozymes South Asia Private Limited and up to the intersection just before the Bharat Petroleum bunk. Pipe laying work. The road heading towards tin factory was blocked off. Multiple JCB's and some other maintenance equipment was occupying the entire road.

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by binand

Phew. My office has shifted to ORR (Panathur Road), so now I have the misfortune to take the Yemalur-Kadubeesanahalli link road daily. This stretch takes < 10 minutes by car or bike, but what 10 minutes! Not sure if my back can take it for much longer. The alternatives seem to me are OA Road > Tulsi Theatre > ORR (U-turn at Innovative) or Bellandur > Sakra Hospital > ORR - neither very appealing.

Welcome to the club of patient gentlemen / ladies not working in Ecospace but who commute via Ecospace / Bellandur back home

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

Welcome to the club of patient gentlemen / ladies not working in Ecospace but who commute via Ecospace / Bellandur back home

I think Ecospace and the several huge offices like Cisco SEZ nearby have been the worst thing to hit Bangalore, on par with the Siege of Constantinople. The entire surrounding areas and then some more have taken a huge hit, to name a few HSR, BTM, Koramangala, even Electronics City. Having worked for a few months in EC around 2010-11 I can confidently say driving on those roads & surrounding areas were a breeze back then, even at 6pm, 8pm one could drive without any heart-in-mouth moments and the drive till Silk Board junction would hardly take 20-25 minutes. This city was indeed a good place to be in back then, even routes like Total Mall in ORR & nearby areas were a breeze to drive in (sans the one million flyovers of today).

The massive office campuses & SEZ's of ORR have killed off South-East Bangalore completely, compared to the calm & serene E.C this is a joke, a disaster in planning of the highest scale. In future I hope these companies pack off to the North Bangalore side or even to other cities like Hyderabad. As it stands any outsider with 2 good eyes should laugh at what has become of a city which had the greatest potential in India but never could come to terms with the endless greed for reaping profits from the space available.

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

I think Ecospace and the several huge offices like Cisco SEZ nearby have been the worst thing to hit Bangalore, on par with the Siege of Constantinople. The entire surrounding areas and then some more have taken a huge hit, to name a few HSR, BTM, Koramangala, even Electronics City. Having worked for a few months in EC around 2010-11 I can confidently say driving on those roads & surrounding areas were a breeze back then, even at 6pm, 8pm one could drive without any heart-in-mouth moments and the drive till Silk Board junction would hardly take 20-25 minutes. This city was indeed a good place to be in back then, even routes like Total Mall in ORR & nearby areas were a breeze to drive in (sans the one million flyovers of today).

The massive office campuses & SEZ's of ORR have killed off South-East Bangalore completely, compared to the calm & serene E.C this is a joke, a disaster in planning of the highest scale. In future I hope these companies pack off to the North Bangalore side or even to other cities like Hyderabad. As it stands any outsider with 2 good eyes should laugh at what has become of a city which had the greatest potential in India but never could come to terms with the endless greed for reaping profits from the space available.

Taking your account a little back , I used to work in the city in 2000 to 2003. I remember driving to Marathahalli for an evening of fun on weekends at the various dhabas that dotted the road towards Varthur. The grotesque Marathahalli of today was only limited to the road towards Whitefield.ORR was still half built and we could have a nice time in the evening watching planes land on old airport either near IRR or the desolate ORR. I used to work in Malleswaram and was staying in Banashankari 2nd Stage. The commute in my old rickety Maruti 800 was just 1/2 hour. I remember it to be 40 mins when I used to get caught sometimes near Anand Rao circle.

Population exploded / business bloomed and like most other non-metro but growing cities infrastructure could not keep pace. The civic planners were completely caught off guard and this is the result.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

The entire surrounding areas and then some more have taken a huge hit, to name a few HSR, BTM, Koramangala, even Electronics City.

When I landed in Bangalore (with my dad's Kinetic Honda), a drive from Mathikere Main road near Yeshwantpur to Tavarakere in South East Bangalore was just a matter of 30 mins during week ends. It was the time when "circles" actually had a round-about and fly overs were not even there. No fly over at Anand Rao Circle, Residency Road etc. When I was staying at Maruti Nagar (near Tavarakere), it was a small residential locality. HSR lay out was growing, it had lots of vacant plots and people who built houses there had strong iron grills & bars placed next to the doors & windows. Theft was quite rampant. BTM lay out was also just getting planned - especially the part towards Madiwala Lake etc. Today, that whole area kind of blows my fuse. Flats packed like sardines, PGs and commercial buildings with stair cases reminding of me of "fire escapes" in other countries etc. etc.

Originally Posted by ambivalent_98

I used to work in the city in 2000 to 2003. I remember driving to Marathahalli for an evening of fun on weekends at the various dhabas that dotted the road towards Varthur.

During those times, Marathahalli was an unknown village which was getting popular because of the big textile warehouses who used to sell their slightly inferior stock at very cheap prices. As I remember even the Marathahalli fly over did not exist, and there was a level crossing out there (railway line from BYPL to CRLM and beyond). The outer ring road may have existed, but not in its current avatar. It may have been a village or mofussil road. At the current Sarjapur Road-ORR road there used to be some small shops, which also used to sell some military clothing (like socks, blankos for the belt etc.). Their customers being soldier recruits from the camp near by. Sarjapura was a village, with BMTC not operating any buses. The buses which plied were the Lava Kusha types, with passengers happily sitting on the roof of the bus .

[tharian]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

During those times, Marathahalli was an unknown village which was getting popular because of the big textile warehouses who used to sell their slightly inferior stock at very cheap prices. As I remember even the Marathahalli fly over did not exist, and there was a level crossing out there (railway line from BYPL to CRLM and beyond). The outer ring road may have existed, but not in its current avatar. It may have been a village or mofussil road.

I have cycled from my home near ITC factory( now infotech) to Marathahalli when the ORR was being built to Marathahalli. I don't remember the exact year, but I remember the road was not open for traffic since it was built only upto Martathalli bridge and they were clearing land beyond that towards Sarjapur flyover. So in other words, like the Inner ring road connecting Indiranagar to Koramangala, the road never existed.

But I remember the ORR stretch from Manyata Tech park to KR Puram, out of which only the stretch from Hennur junction to the Hormavu signal existed. It was a layout road which were 4 narrow parallel roads and ended at the Hormavu signal, after which it was just trees. Later the roads were widened and the stretch towards Manayata and beyond and to KR Puram were built.

Unfortunately no pictures since these were school days and my memory is still clear because of the amount of cycling I used to do .
A friend used to stay bang in the center of the dip between Hennur Cross and Hormavu ORR stretch and his was a handful of houses around, I wonder if his house even exists now.
It is mind boggling thinking how much development has taken place on a once almost forest like land.

[suresh_gs]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

HSR lay out was growing, it had lots of vacant plots and people who built houses there had strong iron grills & bars placed next to the doors & windows. Theft was quite rampant. BTM lay out was also just getting planned - especially the part towards Madiwala Lake etc. Today, that whole area kind of blows my fuse. Flats packed like sardines, PGs and commercial buildings with stair cases reminding of me of "fire escapes" in other countries etc. etc.

Gone are those days when there was ample space between houses/flats. Today from the hall of one flat, the bedroom of the other flat can be easily accessed. Space crunch

[audioholic]

Looks like ORR is clogged like crazy right from Marathalli bridge to after bellandur. Took bus to work and while coming back saw bad traffic in Google. Switched routes and heading on old airport road. Traffic pretty smooth except that it's pouring like crazy.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Looks like ORR is clogged like crazy right from Marathalli bridge to after bellandur. Took bus to work and while coming back saw bad traffic in Google. Switched routes and heading on old airport road. Traffic pretty smooth except that it's pouring like crazy.

Yesterday I started at 1630 from EC and reached home at 1800. I felt like "wow"!!

Today I started at 1640 and reached at 1830 which is 10 mins shorter than 2 hours.

There was a lot of traffic right from Forum all the way till Hebbal at all the famous gridlocks.

Oh Bangalore, traffic is so unpredictable!!