Everyday, commuters get stuck on either side of the railway gate on Sarjapur Road at Mullur, thanks to around 30 trains that pass through. Commuters taking this route curse their predicament as they have no other option.
Vehicles caught in a traffic jam at Sarjapur road railway crossing. Pic: Sankar C G
During peak hours, the vehicle pile up extends almost a kilometre on either side of the gate. Office commuters, school vans, BMTC buses – everyone has to queue up. Most often, it is the school buses that get stuck at peak hour. “Everyday, we get late by 30 or 40 minutes. Even after the gate is opened, it takes half an hour to get out of this traffic block. We don’t have any other option but to take the road,” said Sreekanth N, India International School’s bus driver.
The railway gatekeeper Ponnuswami M watches the pile up every day. “Around thirty trains pass by this cross every day, which includes 12 passenger trains and the rest are goods services. Constructing an underpass or flyover can solve the traffic problem,” says the gatekeeper.
The criterion for sanctioning a flyover or underpass at a railway crossing is the Train Vehicle Unit (TVU) should be more than one lakh. TVU is obtained by multiplying the number of vehicles passing through the cross with the number of trains. The railways say the TVU is more than one lakh at the Sarjapur level cross. So a flyover or underpass is a must there.
Hari Babu, Senior Divisional Engineer, Southern Railway, says they have already got a proposal from the state government for a flyover construction. He says “We are going to construct the flyover with the State government contributing 50 percent of the cost. We will start the works as soon as possible.”⊕
To make matters worse – there are speed breakers on both sides – which make it impossible for any vehicle to cross them without hitting the bottom. Sometimes matters can be solved by simply taking care of these basics also. But as bangaloreans we seem to love speed breakers – a fetish that none of the other states in the country seem to suffer from.
Yes. An underpass or a flyover is dire need. The number of vehicles will manifold in another couple of years. Numerous residential projects are coming up on Sarjapur and surrounding areas. It seems railway had already constructed an underpass nearSarjapur-Chandapura road. The priority should have been given to this road because the other road is not that crowded. Do not know why that was taken up first.
worst road from Sarjapura bus stand to Sarjapura village…both sides are
occupied by old houses & small shops
open drainage…why don’t the govt
take action to put a cemrnt road from Sarjapura bus stand to Sarjapura village…when the govt demolished big bungalows in Indra nagar to construce metro train…why
no attention is paid to the road from Sarjapura bustand to sarja
pura village…see the roads in Maharashtra Tamil nadu..Karnataka
is the only city known for land grabbing…worst roads..no traffic control…regular power cut..now
Bangalore is garbage city
Seems the work has started! does it?
http://cityplus.jagran.com/city-news/work-on-railway-bridge-starts_1369649471.html