Motorists bearing the brunt of slow moving peak-hour traffic on Tumkur Road every day can expect no relief for two more months as work on the signal-free elevated corridor here and the axis road to Nelamangala has been delayed.
Officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) said that the work hit a roadblock in the form of two 66kv electrical transmission lines falling along the route of the 4.5km-long four-lane elevated expressway.
“We had written to the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) to shift the lines, but did not receive any response from them for 15 days. After that we decided to take up the task ourselves. Under KPTCL’s supervision, we are increasing the height of the towers above the transmission lines.
Once this is done, the last mile connectivity between the two segments at Peenya will be completed and the road will be thrown open to the public,” said a senior NHAI official on condition of anonymity.
Work on the elevated expressway on NH-4 was started in November 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs775.7 crore. Once completed, it will connect to a 15km long, six-lane axis control toll road leading to Nelamangala, giving commuters seamless connectivity along a four-lane main carriageway, three-lane service road and four-lane elevated expressway.
To enable motorists to take U-turns along this stretch, NHAI has provided an underpass for every two kilometres.
Urban planner Dr AS Kodandapani said that though land acquisition and other technical issues delayed the project, it would ease traffic flow. He said that parts of the city along that stretch were fast developing and the density of traffic was expected to rise by 30%. The NHAI had to be prepared.
The flyover would also ease the flow of traffic plying to and from Tumkur, Davangere, Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum and from the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
After the completion of this project, NHAI will take up the task of converting the four-lane Hebbal flyover to six-lane, and make NH-7, from Hebbal flyover to the international airport, eight-lane wide and signal-free.
