[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Left home near EC at 0900Hrs, quite earlier than the usual start time. Reached ITPL at 1040hrs later than usual
Don't know what is the problem. It is Monday and most schools have also closed. Did not notice much queues in front of fuel bunks as well.

Originally Posted by arjithin

I was on the other direction. Some unusually high Traffic on both sides from Brookbond, Whitefield till the HP petrol pump Gunjur

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I think several schools are having the end of year PTM meetings this week. Considering the mentioned area is full of schools, could be one reason for higher than normal traffic.

It was equally bad on the other side too. Left Mahadevapura near Brigade Metropolis around 0930 and reached Sarjapur Road at 1045, mad crawling traffic all the way from ISRO U turn till Ecoworld / Sakra Flyover on Outer Ring Road. This stretch usually takes 45 mins on a normal day, expected lighter than usual due to school holidays !

[raghuram.cg]

Dear ORR users - Although the Doddanekkundi flyover is open (1 lane) - the traffic is now piling up on the flyover.The reason being the U- Turn that vehicles take to go to Marathalli from Whitefield/Chinappanahalli.This U - Turn should be below the flyover, just like they have done for the traffic from Marathahallo towards Chinappanahalli.
Hope better sense prevails - it almost seems like a lot of money was spent to make the traffic wait on the flyover!!

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by raghuram.cg

Dear ORR users - Although the Doddanekkundi flyover is open (1 lane) - the traffic is now piling up on the flyover.The reason being the U- Turn that vehicles take to go to Marathalli from Whitefield/Chinappanahalli.This U - Turn should be below the flyover, just like they have done for the traffic from Marathahallo towards Chinappanahalli.
Hope better sense prevails - it almost seems like a lot of money was spent to make the traffic wait on the flyover!!

The underpass at Marathahalli just cannot handle the volume of traffic on ORR, and the Doddanekundi flyover is going to make it worse by feeding higher volumes at peak times (which is pretty much most of the day now).

All turn-offs should be moved to service lanes, with entry points moved away from junctions. Entry to Whitefield side could happen from the service lane with a U-turn under the flyover, and exit could be moved to the other side coming out near the ISRO junction.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

The underpass at Marathahalli just cannot handle the volume of traffic on ORR, and the Doddanekundi flyover is going to make it worse by feeding higher volumes at peak times (which is pretty much most of the day now).

All turn-offs should be moved to service lanes, with entry points moved away from junctions. Entry to Whitefield side could happen from the service lane with a U-turn under the flyover, and exit could be moved to the other side coming out near the ISRO junction.

Not just the underpass. The ORR itself is not able to handle the traffic on the ORR these days. It was never designed to do so. Its these fools at the BDA/BBMP who think that building flyovers will solve the problem. Density of traffic is over and above what the road should ideally be handling. Next, they will construct a flyover at ISRO junction and choke rainbow hospital and Marathahalli Bridge. Following which, they will build another flyover above Marathahalli Bridge to choke up Ecospace which has recently opened up. This will lead to the Sarjapur road flyover causing an endless traffic jam.

Add to this, there is a lot of politics in deciding where entry and exits should be placed and zero common sense in between. Instead of constructing those stupid split flyovers, they could have made a wide centre flyover, and 2-3 lane entry exits. That itself would have sorted out some of the mess caused at Ecospace, Rainbow hospital, Doddanekkundi and so on. Instead, create two ugly flyovers, four narrow service lanes scattered apart and force the traffic police to sort out the mess by permutation combination. Due to these single lane exits, we have morons who form two or more lanes just to take the exit, and block the main lane ahead.

Even if the doddanekkundi flyover is completely opened, it will increase the pile up at KR Pura Railway station on one side, and rainbow hospital(which I see has already been achieved ahead of target). Now the U turn there also cant be modified.

If the problem on the ORR has to be fixed, traffic density should be reduced. This, by improving the condition of the parallel roads, like Bellandur Lake road, Doddanekkundi road, and also maybe pave a parallel path in Sarjapur Junction maybe inside Iblur Village which can connect to Agara. This can split the traffic heading towards Koramangla and traffic heading towards BTM/Electronic city much earlier than HSR Layout.

I bid goodbye to the ORR and surrounding areas a few weeks back. Now I just travel inside the city which has more organised traffic, lesser company cabs/buses and no gridlocks or crawls with consistent travel times. Last week though there was a holiday, I gave the ORR a chance on my way back from work, and it took nearly two hours to get home. I would have reached home in half that time coming inside the city on such a holiday.

[ashokrajagopal]

I hear RMZ ecoworld ( comes behind Adarsh Palm Retreat, besides Intel) is expected to have more population than Manyata Tech Park.
Right next to Prestige tech park Kadubesanahalli, Oracle is building a campus supposedly to bring all their spread out offices to one place.

In the next 2-3 years at least 10 more tech parks are supposed to come in, each bringing at least 10k more employees and of course cars.

I do not see ORR's issues reducing anytime soon.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by ashokrajagopal

I hear RMZ ecoworld ( comes behind Adarsh Palm Retreat, besides Intel) is expected to have more population than Manyata Tech Park.
Right next to Prestige tech park Kadubesanahalli, Oracle is building a campus supposedly to bring all their spread out offices to one place.

In the next 2-3 years at least 10 more tech parks are supposed to come in, each bringing at least 10k more employees and of course cars.

I do not see ORR's issues reducing anytime soon.

I am not sure about more tech parks coming up, since I hear from some real estate sources that things are not so good both in terms of demand v/s supply as well as post demonetization issues which has slumped the market. It is just that the builders/owners are in denial and are not willing to bring down prices. Construction activity as reduced, and in whitefield I see many partly constructed buildings left idle.

To add to this, in case the IT industry begins to make careful moves rather than uncontrolled expansion, the situation will stagnate now.

On a positive note, my average commute times have reduced from 2016 to 2017. Not relating it to any current affairs, but compared to the commute times increasing on a yearly basis, it has reduced. My average speeds in the evenings was always between 12-15kmph while it has increased to 17-20kmph even though I am now leaving whitefield at around 5PM, whereas earlier I used to leave at 420ish. Now, if I leave before 430, I reach home in 1hr 10 mins which is an average speed of 21kmph.

[glenmz]

I started a bit late to work today from Kadubesnahalli towards JP Nagar. On reaching Sarjapur road jn, saw that the traffic was dead still on and towards the flyover. Turned towards sarjapur rd and reach back home; and working remotely today. Wondering what the situation will be once the new Prestige Ferns office opens up on ORR.
And about the Ecospace skywalk. Thought it would solve the problems of traffic block there but not much. I always get stuck there on my way home thanks to all the BMTC and private buses who park and occupy atleast 2 lanes to embark people.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by ashokrajagopal

In the next 2-3 years at least 10 more tech parks are supposed to come in, each bringing at least 10k more employees and of course cars.

Originally Posted by audioholic

To add to this, in case the IT industry begins to make careful moves rather than uncontrolled expansion, the situation will stagnate now.

I feel that the IT industry is now like an air plane which has been in the air for quite some time. Now the destination ATC has established contact with the flight, and it is now time to slowly begin the descent. Off course a smooth landing is expected. One thing we must check is if these kind of IT firms which employed thousands of people like a factory would be able to run the show. Such companies mainly ran with multi-year maintenance contract type of projects in which they could employ thousands of young (junior and low-skilled) work force and make money. These type of business is slowly dying out. What may be the trend would be real small (and agile) companies with good specialisation and skilled work force, albeit in less numbers.

With the real estate sector now being given dozes of forced rate corrections, plus changes in the main employment sector of the city all may lead to lesser number of vehicles on the road as well. One trend which I am seeing is that there are lot many people who are willing to use public transport if they have a reasonable access to it. Given a choice there are 1000s who prefer to keep the car at home.

[sdp1975]

There are several tech parks coming up on the ORR stretch and the only solution I see is the metro.

What's a realistic time frame for the metro on the Silk Board/ ORR stretch to be functional , even partially ? 4 years I guess ?

I believe that a 2020 timeline was announced recently , but that'll be breached I guess.

[binand]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

What's a realistic time frame for the metro on the Silk Board/ ORR stretch to be functional , even partially ? 4 years I guess ?

I believe that a 2020 timeline was announced recently , but that'll be breached I guess.

The original go-live date for phase 1 was March 2010 - it is still not complete. @TheMetroRailGuy, a twitter account that tracks progress of all Metro projects in the country, reported that BMRCL has its latest excuse ready:

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/natio...mma-metro.html

"The Metro cannot compromise on the safety and security of passengers, however long it takes" - Pradeep Singh Kharola.

With that sort of track record, I doubt phase 2A (ORR Metro) will be ready anytime before 2025.

PS: Incidentally, this Monorail seems to be the empire striking back after its loss in the battle of the steel flyover.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by binand

With that sort of track record, I doubt phase 2A (ORR Metro) will be ready anytime before 2025.

I think ORR metro is fully above ground and hence should not be delayed a lot once the go ahead is given to contractors. Phase 1 delay was mainly due to the underground sections but again I am sure BMRCL did nothing to get things moving.

BMRCL MD is a joker and if he thinks the current 3 coach trains can handle the load, then he is kidding himself. At 7.30 am when I board the metro from majestic towards BYPL, there is hardly any standing room and once I made the mistake of taking the 8.30 am metro and I was reminded of Mumbai locals.

If you expect ridership to increase from 2L to 5L, how can you handle the load with the same infra? This is so similar to the ORR situation where you just keep adding offices without making space for more cars on the road

[Chetan_Rao]

Repeated promises notwithstanding, only the next generation of IT workers - if all their jobs aren't taken over by robots by then - have a realistic hope of commuting by the ORR Metro.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by procrj

BMRCL MD is a joker and if he thinks the current 3 coach trains can handle the load, then he is kidding himself. At 7.30 am when I board the metro from majestic towards BYPL, there is hardly any standing room and once I made the mistake of taking the 8.30 am metro and I was reminded of Mumbai locals.

Sadly, I have to second this. He behaves as if Metro is some profit making organization which can survive only if least number of coaches carry the most number of people. One of the reasons I stopped taking the metro to work. In the current scenario, it takes more time for me in metro, almost the same cost and zero comfort compared to my car. Hopefully, with the north south line and possibly the 6 coach rakes, things should improve and I will get back to commuting by metro. If not, it doesnt give me any advantage.

I had earlier suggested a simple idea to them on twitter: During peak hours, couple two or more trainsets and run them. During non peak hours, run the 3 coach trainset individually and alter the supply based on demand. This is an idea widely followed in Europe where I spend quite some time now and then. Right from trams to metro to the high speed trains have this concept. The reason is because coupling and decoupling trainsets is a simple job compared to adding coaches to a trainset. As expected, no ear was given to this.

Rather, he wants ridership to increase, and then they will consider converting the 3 coach rakes to 6 coaches. They have international standard technologies and equipment used, but sadly, lack innovative implementation. Just look at how the whitefield metro line is planned. It is more wierd than the one way system put in place for traffic. The one way system might have solved some problems, but this metro alignment will cause the trains to run slower with its curves and turns.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by procrj

BMRCL MD is a joker and if he thinks the current 3 coach trains can handle the load, then he is kidding himself. At 7.30 am when I board the metro from majestic towards BYPL, there is hardly any standing room and once I made the mistake of taking the 8.30 am metro and I was reminded of Mumbai locals.

ti

I remember the MD making comments in line with this. He wanted it to be used like Mumbai locals and that people here didnt know how to use it. They just want to cram them with people.

Also, looking at the pace with which the work is going on in Mysore road, they should do it quickly. Its the stations that take majority of the time.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by binand

With that sort of track record, I doubt phase 2A (ORR Metro) will be ready anytime before 2025.

Tend to agree with you. From what ever I have observed in the state so far, knee-jerk reactions (and grandoise statements) are the norm. Even the tiny "development activities" (eg: the lake cleanups) all seem to be for a short term goal; state assembly elections in 2018.

Originally Posted by procrj

BMRCL MD is a joker and if he thinks the current 3 coach trains can handle the load, then he is kidding himself.

My understanding is that BMRCL does have stock (and plans) to make these trains a 5 coach rake. But making them longer than this would be a problem (as platforms may not be long enough etc.).

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Repeated promises notwithstanding, only the next generation of IT workers - if all their jobs aren't taken over by robots by then - have a realistic hope of commuting by the ORR Metro.

I am a very cynical person, so take this just in that way only . IT is not going to be the "mass employer" industry like it was in early 2000s. Today we hear about many engineering colleges shutting shop as nobody takes up their main course offering B.Tech (IT), B.Tech (Computers etc.). Companies are also not parking trucks in front of these colleges and "recruiting" every one who walks past that truck. And I don't see any other "mass employment" industry getting readied at Bengaluru as well. So all in all, there would be lesser number of people coming into the city - I feel we are slowly reaching a saturation point here.

The politicians and the business class who were in this city (before the IT boom) know all this. The politician's core vote bank all exists the same was it was in 1990s. The business people/real estate barons have also milked the situation to the best. They have made their fortunes, now if any thing goes wrong in the real estate projects they could easily escape. The people would have to suffer (of water problems), or pay money to regularise (Akrama-Sakrama) illegal constructions all would be the "Techies" who have spent most of their money on these dwellings. And these people would have past their prime age, and have also got anchored here for very many reasons. They would remain the sitting ducks they are.