Lack of service road to Tumakuru pinches locals

The lack of service lanes along the National Highway-48 between Nelamangala and Tumakuru has become a source of misery for people living in the surrounding villages and towns, farmers and workers commuting to nearby industries.

The 62-km Bengaluru-Tumakuru leg of the highway was converted into a tolled road in 2010 but by this time, many industries had come up in Dobbspet, a small town located along the highway in Nelamangala taluk. Many industries from Bengaluru either shifted base to Dobbspet or expanded their operations by opening new plants and branches in Dobbspet. Together with Peenya, Dobbspet employs a large number of industrial workers from villages and towns along the highway. But along with employment came commuting problems for these workers because of a lack of service lanes for local traffic.

Shivakumar R, honorary secretary of the Peenya Industries’ Association, says people living in hundreds of villages located along the highway depend on these industries for livelihood. “Every day, lakhs of people commute from nearby towns and villages to Peenya and Dobbspet for work purposes. In the absence of service lanes, they shell out a substantial sum of money on transport, which is both unreliable and costly,” he said and added that full-fledged service lanes would help them.

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Local farmers transporting their produce to markets in Bengaluru face the same problem, according to Basavaraju U S, state secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha. “Farmers are forced to pay high toll charges for using the highway. The government and the highway authorities are harassing them by not providing service lanes. These are the same people who want fresh vegetables at low prices while farmers get a pittance for their hard work,” he added.

While National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials were not available for comment, a well-placed source said that a proposal on providing service lanes was mooted some years ago but didn’t go forward. If implemented, the proposal would have streamlined traffic on the access-controlled (tolled) road between Nelamangala and Tumakuru, the source added.

According to the source, the reason why the proposal didn’t go forward is that the concessionaire of the Nelamangala-Tumakuru section had moved the arbitration tribunal over some of the issues surrounding toll collection. The NHAI challenged the tribunal award in the Delhi High Court. “It’s this legal dispute that has delayed the service lanes,” the source explained.

An official, however, said that the NHAI can take up the work instead of waiting for the dispute resolution. “Instead of wasting time, authorities can take up the work in parallel with the legal dispute. One of the complaints of the toll collectors is that residents of villages quarrel over toll payment. Building a service road will eliminate that problem,” the official added.

Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Travel Operators’ Association, said that it was time that the NHAI realised that Tumakuru had become Bengaluru’s satellite town.

“As per the national highway policy, express highways passing through towns and villages should have service roads. The Nelamangala-Tumakuru stretch not only doesn’t have a service road, but some of the sections in the highway are also badly maintained. Local traffic causes congestion. We are forced to pay toll over and above the road tax,” he said.

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