Bengaluru’s industrial and IT hub Whitefield is always jam-packed these days, with inordinate delays for people on road. Looks like this will change for better, as citizens are working with the government to evolve a sustainable traffic plan that will help ease the traffic problems. This is important, as Metro construction work will start soon in Whitefield and some areas will suffer from traffic.
The new plan for Whitefield designed and implemented by Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) aims to decongest the traffic pain-points in Whitefield area. Monday saw the implementation of the new plan. However, the roads remained congested on the first day of plan roll out, with many vehicles coming from wrong side and causing confusion among commuters, and some routes becoming longer.
Here is the new plan shared by Bangalore Traffic Police:
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
New traffic plan for Whitefield
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Bouquets and brickbats on the first day
As with any initiative, there was positive as well as negative feedback for the new traffic plan. Here is the gist, gathered from Bangalore Traffic Police Facebook page and discussions within Whitefield Rising group:
- Many commuters in Whitefield Rising Facebook group mention that Graphite India junction was a smooth drive in the morning. Later, however, the situation changed.
- Some commuters reported that the commute from ITPL side towards North Bengaluru became faster.
- Many others point to the problem remaining the same in most of the points, though many think it is only on the first day, and the problems will ease as people get used to the new plan.
- Some argue that feeder road from Doddanakundi to Graphite India junction has no right turn, which makes people travel extra to reach Brookefield.
- A commuter points that the journey from Nallurahalli to Outer Ring Road that takes a good 30 minutes everyday took only 18 minutes today.
- Another commuter who lives in Hoodi and works in Electronic city finds that his route to office has become longer and messier.
- Anjaneya Temple Cross to Cosmos Mall, Kundahalalli gate to Kalyani Tech Park, Garudacharpalya to SJR tech park via Hoodi, Zuri, Big Bazar saw traffic blocks.
- Some commutes have become longer. Example: ITPL to Devasandra, as the Hoodi junction has no left turn towards Devasandra in the new plan. This has resulted in a travel of extra 3 kms for a commuter who wants to go towards Devasandra.
- School children who were boarding school buses in front of their apartments in front of ABB had to cross the road to catch the school bus. There was no police presence to assist children cross the road.
- Many people justified their views with real-time traffic maps that showed red lines at the junctions indicating pent up traffic.
- Many commuters pointed that the narrowing of six lane roads or four lane roads near the signals and bad roads are the cause of traffic woes for Whitefield which cannot be solved by new traffic plans.
- A resident of Basavanagar Main Road pointed that their journey to Brookefield, ITPL, Hope Farm and Ayyappanagar has become harder. “Life is made difficult for Hoodi locals to go to office, school, temple, shopping, hospital just so that it is easier for others to go to office,” he commented on Bangalore Traffic Police page.
- Many commuters flayed BTP for increasing U-turns and adding extra kilometers to their journey.
Working with the system to solve the issue
The new plan has been designed by Bangalore Traffic Police, along with a few residents, who volunteer to solve traffic issues in Whitefield. The idea was to do some simple modifications to the routes, thereby preparing roads and traffic in Whitefield area for Metro work.
Nitya Ramakrishnan, co-founder of Whitefield Rising, writes on Whitefield Rising website about the efforts that went into this:
“..Given that 36,000 crores in revenue is said to come from this area, the road and related support infrastructure [in Whitefield area] is pretty dismal. A multi-pronged approach is being taken to chip away at it.
What WR has done is to bring attention to the problem of traffic in Whitefield and put it on the Government radar – starting from getting more police force – both law and order and traffic, focusing attention on road condition, pot holes, digging etc, BMTC buses, helping them with more volunteers, assisting coordination between various agencies (BBMP/ BWSSB/ BESCOM/ BTP etc.). It is a long list.
As part of this, all Whitefielders agreed that the worst spots were Kundanahalli, Hoodi, Big Bazar and Graphite. We were fortunate that M N Reddi, Commissioner of Police, sat up and paid attention to all our collective clamouring. BTP hired Professional Traffic consultants who did a month-long study of the traffic, flows and possible solutions for these areas before coming up with this plan.”
Nitya adds that “It is unknown how or whether this will help or resolve our traffic issues,” as it is only a trial and there is always scope for improvement.
Citizen Matters is helping document the issues in the new plan, and the positives too. If you are a commuter who has been affected positively or negatively, please fill the form below and submit it. Your email id will be taken for reference. The information we collect will be shared with Bangalore Traffic Police and the volunteers of Whitefield.
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A great initiative by the Bangalore traffic police – at least they are trying something rather than pure apathy as on the Silk Board and Ring road case. Kudos to citizen matters for enabling this process. These simple principles of traffic calming can be applied in many places in Bangalore. Hyderabad traffic police has had very good success in helping better traffic movement with existing infrastructure. Simple ideas – 1. Allow segregated “free left turn” lanes where possible. This Keeps traffic from backing up, especially at T junctions.2. Where possible prioritize big road traffic. 3. Do not allow minor roads to intersect large roads; Block the median and provide U turns about 500 meters away from the meeting point. This keeps the large road traffic moving. 4. actively Protect pedestrians and footpaths. Penalize wilful encroachers and abusers of footpaths. Can Bangalore Traffic Police please consider some of these simple ideas at places like HSR-Silkboard-BTM corridor.
Still 0 this is band aid…the Vellara junction to whitefield Signal Free corridors is the real solution..god knows where that is hanging