Panathur Road, Bangalore 'city'

" City - A city is a large human settlement. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organizations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process." 

Bangalore has got a lot of good things to cherish about. Climate, cosmopolitan atmosphere, major IT companies, and more.

But this is about another side of Bangalore or in fact, the real side of Bangalore. The Bangalore that has worst traffic management, unplanned layouts, roads where 2 cars cannot go at a time and needs 2 traffic police at the opposite ends to manage the traffic. 

Panathur road

Panathur Road connects outer ring road, from Kadubeesanahalli to Varthur and is familiar to office goers who travels from Whitefield to Bellandur or by people who travel from Bellandur to ITPL.

It is also the place where there is a small railway station, Bellandur Road which is used by commuters who travels to Hosur (mainly).

A couple of years before, the area was almost no man's land and had very few commuters. Forward to now, with the increase in companies on the outer ring road and ITPL and the workforce,  this road has become one of the busiest roads and is getting busier day by day. The advantage of being a shortcut road to reach Varthur from the outer ring road.

Naturally, with an increase in the crowd, real estate also picked up and now even bigger players have also made an investment, say Sobha dream acres.

All the above might explain how an area gets 'developed' with the arrival of companies nearby and so on. All good. 

But was the infrastructure ready?

 Did BBMP check the accessibility or feasibility before providing approvals to the apartments coming up?

Did they check if the road can accommodate 1000s of vehicles at a time? 

Did they check if the road can accommodate at least 2 cars at the same time before giving approval for apartments? 

Did the authorities check if public transport is feasible through this road?

NEVER

The road through the house or house on the road? 

Result:  

Massive block. Vehicles coming from Varthur side and vehicles coming from the outer ring road are not able to pass through this road as the road is too narrow. Since the place has a good amount of groundwater, it is the mecca of water tankers and they act as a catalyst for the bottleneck situation.

The line towards outer ring road  in an afternoon

Regular traffic towards Varthur side

To avoid the impact of this on sales of the apartments, private security guards were deployed on either side of the road with a walky-talky and at a time only vehicles towards one side are allowed. Not sure if the guards were kept by the traffic police department or the real estate groups.

This was not enough as the traffic was piling up. But nothing was done until 2 lives were sacrificed. A 12 old year kid and a 25-year youngster.

Post the accident, candlelight protests were held and as a result, water tanker timings were restricted and 2 traffic police were allotted to manage the traffic.

Situation now:
For the water tankers, the sign seems to be a decor item and most of the time you can see tankers in the queue.  

Scene after 8 PM:
The scene after 8 PM is horrible since there are no traffic police/security guards to monitor the vehicles coming from either side. So you never know, whether you will get stuck in the middle or you will be lucky enough to reach the other end. 

As a result, even at midnight 1-2 AM there is a horrible block and takes hours together just to reach either end.

This picture was taken at 1 AM or so.

There is a traffic signal post at on both ends, but even if it is made operational, vehicles following them properly is an unrealistic dream.

 Positive developments - Croma Road

A new parallel road is constructed that starts from Disha Park West and connects to the road that takes you to Croma, Maratha Halli, hence, called Croma road.

This has come as a big relief for the commuters. But not at all a permanent solution since there is a water vent to cross that gets waterlogged occasionally and commuters are forced to take the risk to cross the hurdle.

Also, even though the roads are meant for light motor vehicles, water tankers are pretty much common and already bore well has been dug on the roadside.

PS: There were a couple of height barrier installed, but could survive only for a shorter time as the tanker mafia got it removed forcefully within a few days. 


In addition, the area next to roads, which looks like a lake bed is being leveled.

In short, only permanent solution is an additional vent (near Bellandur railway station) and road widening of panther road (S cross). There has been news about this, but no progress in reality.


In News 29/01/2019:
https://www.deccanherald.com/city/panathur-mud-road-about-be-715255.html

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/civic/balagere-main-road-in-severe-need-of-repair/articleshow/67715543.cms

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2019/jun/17/hundreds-protest-against-bad-roads-1991139.html

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2019/mar/23/water-tankers-wreak-havoc-on-bengaluru-roads-1954481.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/mahadevapura-residents-spend-90-min-in-traffic-survey-728442.html