‘Speed up Tumakuru flyover repair’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Human Rights Protection Committee has written a letter to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials requesting them to speed up the work on the Tumakuru flyover and re-open it for the public as soon as possible.

Traffic on the busy Dr Shivakumara Swamiji flyover was thrown out of gear on December 25 when the NHAI officials found issues with the cables of two spans during a routine inspection. To facilitate the maintenance work, the officials had asked the police to close traffic on the flyover until the repair works were complete.

Normally, each day the flyover carried 50,000-60,000 vehicles in both directions. “Initially, the NHAI officials had said that the repair works will be completed by January 3, but later they said the flyover will be opened on January 14,” a commuter said. “The work got delayed and it’s almost a month now. It is taking almost 3 hours to pass this stretch,” he added.

Even the Traffic officials are having a tough time controlling the traffic chaos that is starting from Goraguntepalya junction until Parle Toll Plaza. According to the officials working on the flyover, the repair work of the cables is highly skilled work and has to be carried out in a precise manner.

“During the routine inspection, rusting was found in the prestressed cable,” Akil Ahmed, regional officer of NHAI told News Trail. “It happened due to incessant rain. Though there are no major concerns, he decided to close the flyover for traffic, as a precautionary measure. We are awaiting the inspection report from IISc before taking any necessary action,” he said. The problem was detected between pillar number 102 and 103 near Eight Mile.The IISc would carry out a detailed inspection of the elevated highway project and also take up a structural audit to ascertain the soundness of the flyover before it is thrown open to the public.