Draw up long-term plans to ease traffic: DKS to officials

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also in charge of Bengaluru development, went around the city on Tuesday to inspect the traffic related issues.  The minister was accompanied by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Tushar Girinath and other officials here.

Visiting the Hebbal flyover, DK Shivakumar held a meeting with several National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials, including Regional Officer Vivek Jaiswal, who briefed him about their proposal to decongest the flyover. The proposal also included putting up a cable car line over Hebbal Lake. DK Shivakumar said that he had instructed the officials to make double-lane carriageways wherever possible.

"There are 18 junctions in the city which witness traffic jams regularly. I have asked the officials concerned to draw up long-term plans to ease traffic," he said later in the day. While the demand of the people to widen the flyover – whose loops connect the Bengaluru Airport, Hyderabad and city-based IT hubs had been on the rise, Shivakumar spoke to the officials regarding the work. He also checked the blueprints of the projects planned for the Hebbal flyover.

Following this, the minister inspected the areas around KR Puram metro station for the traffic congestions. "We are considering two options. Construction of flyovers and underground tunnels. The government is working towards both short-term and long-term solutions to address traffic woes in Bengaluru," he said. He also checked out the desilting work in the Storm Water Drains in Telecom Layout, near HRBR Layout. The minister said that he had asked the officials to identify the root cause of the rising traffic jams.

The minister also felt that the KR Puram Metro line should not have been inaugurated in a hurry. At Tin Factory in KR Puram, he was greeted by BJP MLA Byrathi Basavaraj. Earlier in the day, Shivakumar held a meeting with Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) chairman Rakesh Singh and other officials at the civic agency’s headquarters.