Two in one: CBD reels in traffic snarls, thanks to key sporting events

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Huge traffic snarls on the central business district (CBD), as two sporting events took place simultaneously e on Saturday.

At the popular M Chinnaswamy Stadium was a cricket match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in the Women's Premier League and The Kanteerava Stadium hosted a football match between rivals Bengaluru FC and Kerala Blasters FC in the Indian Super League.

Both the stadiums, on either end of Cubbon Park, saw huge traffic grief lock in roads connecting these stadiums.

A screenshot taken around the evening on Google Maps showed almost double the time to cross these connecting roads from Vittal Mallya junction to Anil Kumble junction is half an hour.

As fans came down to watch their heroes play, vehicle parking had eaten up road spaces with people parking their vehicles wherever they found a space adding to the congestion.

Sources claimed that fans going to the WPL match were told to park their vehicles near the Kanteerava stadium leaving the ones coming for the football match with no specific designated space to park their vehicles.

A fan from Ramamurthy Nagar who wished to remain anonymous claimed that their cab didn't drop them at the Kanteerava Stadium and they had to walk quite a distance to reach the stadium.

Police sources said that Queens Road was under complete gridlock and vehicles were stuck in traffic for a long time on a Saturday evening.

Although several traffic cops were deployed to manage the traffic there and strict checking staff were deployed at both Chinnaswamy and Kanteerava stadiums, there was no official traffic advisory from the Bengaluru Traffic Police the previous day.

Several fans questioned the planning of the officials as two key sporting events were not made properly causing inconvenience to both fans as well as other commuters.

Citizens and commuters urge that the popularity of these sporting events, along with the weekend traffic must have been taken into consideration.

This also comes against the backdrop of Friday's low-intensity bomb blast at an eatery, dense traffic zones will ensue, leaving the cops in chaos.