As new Namma Metro lines stumble, old problems resurface

The Namma Metro Yellow Line between Bommasandra and R V Road is scheduled for commissioning by the 2023. However, the pace at which the construction is advancing is giving daily commuters a nightmare.

Delayed sanctions and sluggish pace of work have all contributed to commuter frustration. It has been almost a year and logistical problems such as dug-up roads and narrowing down of the main routes due to barricading have triggered terrible traffic jams.

READ: Dead lines of Namma Metro

At the receiving end of this mess for several months now, Vishal Mishra, a resident of BTM Layout has this to say: “I get stuck in stagnant traffic every day while travelling to and fro my office, which is in HSR Layout (less than 5 km).”

Apart from poor logistics by the municipality, “I think the rate at which people are investing in private vehicles may not cut down a lot of traffic from the roads by the time the metro lines are ready. Also, I have to keep changing routes as the barricading on the roads shifts very frequently,” he notes.

As they are heading home from work, the frustration on the faces of Pawan Tiwari and his colleagues is clearly visible as more than a kilometre-long traffic lies ahead of them at the Silk Board Junction.

Tiwari points out, “The roads are dusty and cause breathing problems to those who travel on two-wheelers and open vehicles. Also, residents and workers in close vicinity to the construction site suffer from noise pollution. We hardly get any time for ourselves after a long day at work because of the traffic conditions.”

The construction status of the Pink Line aligned between Gottigere and Nagawara is no good either. The line is proposed to be completed around the same time (March 2023) but the languorous pace of work again has made it extremely difficult for the commuters to travel through the heart of the city to the suburbs.

“The roads are too small for so many vehicles. Ever since they started demolishing the (Jayadeva) flyover, the traffic has only increased. There is always constant noise, dust and smoke”, says Shankara, a resident of Dairy Circle.

Arvind AB, an IBM employee on Bannerghatta Road, says, “Traffic is definitely impacted. But this is for the better good for tomorrow. So as citizens, let’s give it some time to our state administration.”

Inayat Hussain is also an employee at IBM but his views vary sharply but fairly from Arvind. He says, “I live five kilometres away. When I leave at 7 pm after work, it takes me more than half an hour to cover the distance.”

A survey by cab aggregator OlaCabs had shown that the average speed of vehicles in Bengaluru had dropped from 20.4 kmph in 2017 to 17.2 kmph in 2018. Since the Metro work for the second phase commenced in 2019, it is anticipated that the graphs will only be going down further.

For Lingaraj Kyatarai, who works in Bannerghatta road, the Metro work has been a cause for another big problem: Parking, as roads have narrowed down. “Air pollution too is really high. There’s so much dust and smoke we can barely see anything at times. The work is too slow, there has not been much progress for quite some time now and it is getting difficult,” he says.