The Central Silk Board bus stop will be shifted at least 250 feet ahead towards HSR Layout to ensure easy movement of traffic.
The bus stop is now too close to the signal, hindering the free flow of traffic at the busy junction. Following the efforts made by the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA) and government agencies, the medians dividing the service road will also be moved to make way for new bus shelters at the junction.
ORRCA had approached Bangalore Traffic Police and had written on their Facebook page asking them to streamline the movement of traffic at the Central Silk Board junction. ORRCA's honorary president Poornapragna G A said that the bus stop is also the starting point for buses towards Marathahalli and Whitefield.
As a result of this, there are many buses stationed at the junction, leading to slow moving traffic.
A regular commuter on this road said, “As far as I have noticed, these buses are rarely found in the parking bays or on the service road. Due to paucity of space, these buses continued to spill over onto the road unless there is a traffic police constable manning them.”
A traffic inspector for the area said that the bus-stop was used as a bus-station causing major traffic blocks at this junction.
Jam packed junction
The Silk Board junction connects Bangalore South to Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli and Whitefield and also Electronic City on Hosur Road. It is one of the major roads with a high density of traffic movement, so it becomes necessary for the traffic police to ease the traffic flow at the junction. When the ORRCA approached them, a report was sent to the government to shift the bus-stop location further ahead, added the traffic police.
BMTC’s managing director Anjum Pervez agreed that the bus stop did create traffic blocks and that they have agreed to shift it. “Since we do not have land of our own to station those buses which begin their journey from the Silk Board junction, we had to park them on the road. There is a piece of land belonging to the traffic police at the junction, we are thinking of using it and exchanging it with our land elsewhere,” he added.
The Bangalore Development Authority has been approached to construct pipe culvert at the junction, bus shelters have been installed and asphalting work will be carried out in the coming days.