Eye on Bengaluru: Why tech capital’s 2G infra work pace needs a 5G push

Nearly six years after work on the 2.5km-long Ejipura-Kendriya Sadan flyover in startup hub Koramangala commenced, it's still just a row of bare pillars.

The flyover is nowhere in sight and the concrete structures have been drawing mocking 'Stonehenge' comparisons.

The bustling city, home to tech and startups, is paradoxically also the land of apathetic infrastructure and a slew of unfinished flyovers, rail over bridges and underpasses.

Much blame for this can be rightfully put on a lack of political will as well as poor coordination among multiple agencies.

Techie residence areas like Bellandur and Mahadevapura, which were brought into the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) fold fairly recently in 2007, have a skeletal public infrastructure. In summer, these areas struggle with water shortage and have to rely heavily on tankers. During rains, even a brief spell can drown these places completely.

“The biggest challenge in Bengaluru is mobility,” former Infosys director and industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai told Moneycontrol.

“For instance, the missing 2-km link between Byappanahalli and KR Pura has hampered the utilisation of Whitefield Metro. This was due to the poor coordination between Bengaluru Metro and South Western Railway (SWR). The state government should constitute a high-level committee, monitor projects on a weekly basis and complete them in the next six-12 months. Until old pending projects are completed, no new projects should be announced,” he said.

The bustling city, home to tech and start-ups is paradoxically also the land of apathetic infrastructure and a slew of unfinished flyovers, rail over bridges and underpasses.

In 2017, the BBMP laid the foundation stone for the 2.4-km-long flyover from the Kendriya Sadan junction to the Ejipura Main Road junction in Koramangala. The tender for the construction of the flyover was invited in 2014 and a work order for the project was awarded to Simplex Infrastructures at a cost of Rs 203 crore in May 2017.

According to BBMP officials, work was supposed to be completed in 30 months by November 2019. However, there was no progress despite an extended deadline of December 2020 reportedly due to the financial crisis of Kolkata-based Simplex .

BBMP has already paid Rs 72 crore to the contractor. Of the 81 pillars for the elevated corridor, only 67 have been built so far. Even the high court pulled up BBMP for failing to come up with a deadline for the project. Following this, BBMP terminated the contract with Simplex in March 2022.

BBMP officials said they floated the fourth tender worth Rs 144 crore to complete the pending project. BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath told Moneycontrol that two firms participated in the tender. "Of the two, one qualified in the technical bid. We will need to open financial bids but we won't be able to issue work orders till the election model code of conduct is in place.”

The flyover, according to BBMP staff, was conceived with signal-free movement in mind. However, experts say that even if it is completed, it is unlikely to reduce congestion, and could instead choke the Intermediate Ring Road and Hosur Road.

Muralidhar Rao, a resident of Koramangala since 2005, said, “The flyover work has narrowed down the width of the carriageway. Construction debris and garbage are being dumped under the incomplete structure and causing a nuisance to residents and commuters. Residents had requested the improvement of feeder bus connectivity but it was ignored.”

Panathur-Balagere Road is a nightmare for techies who frequent Kadubeesanahalli (near Marathahalli) on Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Varthur near Whitefield. In fact, there has been a long-pending demand to widen the railway underbridge and S-Cross Road in Panathur. South Western Railway in May 2022 had said widening of Panathur RUB with two new vents will be completed by March 2023. However, SWR has so far completed only one vent and BBMP is yet to complete the approach road. Sources said the plan is to widen S-Cross from the existing one-lane of 4-metre width to 12 metres.

Residents complain about severe daily bottlenecks and incessant flooding during rains. In fact, so dire is the situation that even school children joined in the protests for the widening of Balagere and Panathur Road. The protest came after school students were stranded in traffic for more than two-and-a-half hours last year. A candlelight protest was also held in the area and residents urged the Prime Minister via social media to visit the area.

Clement Jayakumar, Secretary, Mahadevapura MLA’s Task Force (Mobility), said, “We need to acquire 55 properties for the 300-metre S-cross Road widening. A total of Rs 16 crore has been sanctioned for the project. The land acquisition process has started but it will take more than six months for the process to be completed. Once it is done, demolishing of properties and road widening and relaying work will be done in three months.” For Panathur RUB, work on one vent has been completed but the approach road is yet to be ready because of the delay in land acquisition from BBMP. Once it is over, work on the second vent will also begin,” he said.

In Bengaluru, there are 26 manually operated level crossings including six on the Banaswadi-Hebbal section, three on Carmelaram-Byappanahalli and the remaining on sections like Hebbal-Yeswantpur, Channasandra-Yelahanka, Kengeri-KSR Bengaluru City and KSR Bengaluru City -Yeswantpur. This means there is at least a 10-15 minute-traffic jam every time a train passes through. Traffic congestion is only bound to increase as Railways is planning to increase train services.

At Carmelaram level crossing gate, motorists who use the route to reach Sarjapur Road, ORR, Varthur and Gunjur are hassled by the lengthy wait. A demand for a railway over bridge has been pending for the past few years. According to an SWR official, an over bridge at Carmelaram has been sanctioned but BBMP is yet to acquire the land.

In Jakkur in north Bengaluru, work on a 500-metre rail overbridge began in 2012 but there has been no progress since 2014, forcing residents to take long detours. BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said work was delayed due to the lack of land. “Of the 48 properties, 38 have been acquired and the remaining will be acquired soon,” he said.

At Kaggadasapura in east Bengaluru, SWR sanctioned a bridge over the railway crossing in 2012 but the project is yet to take off, after more than a decade. This is causing severe hardship to motorists in CV Raman Nagar and neighbouring Mahadevapura.

Sanjeev Dyamannavar, a rail activist said, "In 2018-2019, there was a proposal to eliminate all level crossings with rail over/under bridges in Bengaluru but there has been no progress. In places like Jakkur, Kengeri and Karmeleram, residents are forced to wait at level crossings. With Railways taking up doubling and quadrupling work and suburban rail projects, more train movements are a certainty which means more waiting time for road users. Railways is also finding it difficult to increase the speed of trains due to the level crossings.”

Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan told Moneycontrol, “I have already raised the matter of eliminating all railway level crossings with ROB/RUB in Bengaluru, in Parliament. Also, I have been following up on the issue with concerned authorities for the past two years. There are multiple hurdles and many departments involved but we are working on this.”

The city’s most ambitious Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) was proposed in 2007 to ease traffic congestion, particularly in the city’s outskirts. The project, which is being implemented by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) under the Public-Private Partnership model on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis, has made little progress so far. The 74-km PRR is supposed to be an eight-lane access-controlled expressway linking Tumakuru Road and Hosur Road via Hesaraghatta Road, Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Hennur Road, Old Madras Road, Hoskote Road and Sarjapur Road.

“We recently received the Union environment committee’s nod for the project. It will be on track after the elections. PRR project has a deadline of December 2027,” a BDA official. However, the initial project’s cost has already jumped from Rs 3,000 crore to a whopping Rs 21,091 crore. BDA floated a tender for the project twice in 2022, however, no bidder showed up.

Pruthvin Reddy, an infrastructure enthusiast, said, "This project will benefit areas like Yelahanka and Mahadevapura. But chances of PRR taking off in its current form is slim because of a steep increase in land acquisition costs. Many contractors expressed interest in the project and demanded additional toll plazas and an extension of the toll-collection period. The government will have to take quick decisions on these demands, otherwise, firms may not participate in the tender since the project may not be financially feasible for them anymore. Even if the project takes off, the per-km toll fee is likely to be more than the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway.”