Outer ring road traffic a nightmare for HBR layout

By J Vignesh
BENGALURU: Roads yet to be laid in many parts of the layout.

Abhijit Kumar works for Alcatel-Lucent India at Manyata Tech Park. He should ideally take ten minutes to reach his office from his residence situated in the fifth block of HBR Layout.

He, however, takes around 45 minutes, thanks to the absurd traffic planning that forces him to drive up to Hennur to take a U-turn to reach Nagavara junction, which is a kilometre and half away. Such traffic planning is just one of the many problems that the Hennur Ballari Road (HBR) Layout residents face.

The lack of safe pedestrian crossings from the Outer Ring Road to the residential layout is a cause for concern. Crossing the ORR, where there is never a respite from vehicle flow, is a nightmare. “A skywalk must be built near the Manyata Tech Park. Pedestrians find it easy to cross the road and motorists need not wait for pedestrians to cross the roads which thereby eases traffic to some extent,“ said Rakesh MG, an employee of General Motors.

There are parts of the ward where roads do not even exist. “Roads are yet to be laid in many parts. Streetlights too need to be maintained. Once a bulb fuses, the replacement takes a long time,“ said Prabhakara Prabhu, an employee at Accenture.

The BDA-built layout falling in the Sarvagna Nagar constituency , represented by Home Minister KJ George, also has drainage and safety concerns. “The drains are not cleaned; they are choked with plastic. The dirty drains breed mosquitoes and disease,“ said Zaheer Abbas, an employee of Quintiles.