Crippling traffic post downpour fires tempers in tech offices on Monday
Nearly a kilometre of road has been dug up from Kundalahalli Junction to Graphite Junction
Monday morning blues are a pain to get over especially after a leisurely weekend, and techies have been going through it every week. But this Monday morning blues were made worse by a monstroustraffic jam for lakhs heading to their offices in the tech-corridor of Marathalli-Whitefield area.
The reason: Civic apathy. A police officer said: “The culprits are the civic agencies who dug up the road for nearly a kilometre from Kundalahalli Junction to Graphite Junction on ITPB Road. The heavy downpour on Sunday night had worsened the situation as the road had turned slushy, causing vehicles (especially two-wheelers) to reduce speeds to a mere crawl. It had a ripple-effect on other roads, resulting in traffic snarls.”
Whitefield , were clogged.
The result: Frustration and exhaustion even before work could take a toll.
“Why is he/she barking today?” was the flavour of the talk at coffee-vending machines in almost all offices, highlighting the mood at the workplace.
The reply almost everywhere went like this: “Maybe he/she was struck in a jam.”
Many vented out their frustration over the social media; one described the traffic jam on ORR as “mayhem”.
A regular commuter, marketing strategist Mahesh S, said, “It so tiresome to drive the car at the busy Graphite Junction after the roads were dug by BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board) and the restoration work going on for a few days. I was late by almost an hour at work while I usually reach half an hour in advance. We were left with no options without an alternative route to reach the office; all vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace. Henceforth when city has a heavy downpour of rain we should not take vehicles out…”
Meena Rao, a homemaker, said, “The roads were dirt tracks; it was single-lane movement for all vehicles. I was forced to drop my son an hour late to school. There were even school buses which would have reached late to school.”
At the busy Graphite Junction, Whitefield traffic inspector Ramachandrappa was even hit by a car which could not stop in time due to the slush. “It is BBMP’s (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s) apathy that has led to such bad condition of the road which cannot be used by motorists. Due to this, vehicles were not able to move properly. Only after we started filling up the dug up place with mud the motorist started moving. While handling the traffic I was hit by a car,” he lamented.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (South-East) Traffic, Gopal Reddy, said, “Since morning there has been a huge traffic piled up as the dug up road was left without asphalting. When we asked BBMP they claim they were unaware of any works or about any permissions regarding that. The road was dug to install a pipe nine feet underground where it was later covered with mud without using jelly stones or a concrete layer. After the heavy downpour the road sunk. We had to manage the situation with traffic coming to a grinding halt since morning till late evening. The civic authorities should think about commuters before taking any action.”
Rain alert
It was Whitefield traffic warden, Manu Mehra, who tried to alert the Commissioner of police, DCP traffic South-East and the Whitefield traffic police through Twitter at 4.15 am after the heavy downpour. She said, “As I control the traffic here I knew the situation so I had to alert all of them to prevent the traffic piling up.”
Twitterati on chaos
@ORR traffic is like Harbhajan Singh’s bowling. Always knew it was bad but has gotten immeasurably worse over the last two weeks.
@One Bangalorean = software engineer. Two Bangaloreans = home delivery app startup. Three Bangaloreans = traffic jam on ORR
@Avg dist in an hour 5km at peak and 10 km @nonpeak at ORR utter nonsense.
@I am road lagged by the time I reach office.
@Today it took me 2 hrs to reach office (10km). Traffic was clogged on ORR, Yamalur, HAL pol stn
Monday morning blues are a pain to get over especially after a leisurely weekend, and techies have been going through it every week. But this Monday morning blues were made worse by a monstrous
The reason: Civic apathy. A police officer said: “The culprits are the civic agencies who dug up the road for nearly a kilometre from Kundalahalli Junction to Graphite Junction on ITPB Road. The heavy downpour on Sunday night had worsened the situation as the road had turned slushy, causing vehicles (especially two-wheelers) to reduce speeds to a mere crawl. It had a ripple-effect on other roads, resulting in traffic snarls.”
The magnitude of the traffic snarl was such that techies and schoolchildren were forced to spend almost three hours on the road while trying to cover a distance of just 10 km. All the roads – Old Airport Road, Outer Ring Road (ORR), Graphite Junction Road, Sarjapur Road and Old Madras Road – leading to
The result: Frustration and exhaustion even before work could take a toll.
“Why is he/she barking today?” was the flavour of the talk at coffee-vending machines in almost all offices, highlighting the mood at the workplace.
The reply almost everywhere went like this: “Maybe he/she was struck in a jam.”
Many vented out their frustration over the social media; one described the traffic jam on ORR as “mayhem”.
A regular commuter, marketing strategist Mahesh S, said, “It so tiresome to drive the car at the busy Graphite Junction after the roads were dug by BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board) and the restoration work going on for a few days. I was late by almost an hour at work while I usually reach half an hour in advance. We were left with no options without an alternative route to reach the office; all vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace. Henceforth when city has a heavy downpour of rain we should not take vehicles out…”
Meena Rao, a homemaker, said, “The roads were dirt tracks; it was single-lane movement for all vehicles. I was forced to drop my son an hour late to school. There were even school buses which would have reached late to school.”
At the busy Graphite Junction, Whitefield traffic inspector Ramachandrappa was even hit by a car which could not stop in time due to the slush. “It is BBMP’s (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s) apathy that has led to such bad condition of the road which cannot be used by motorists. Due to this, vehicles were not able to move properly. Only after we started filling up the dug up place with mud the motorist started moving. While handling the traffic I was hit by a car,” he lamented.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (South-East) Traffic, Gopal Reddy, said, “Since morning there has been a huge traffic piled up as the dug up road was left without asphalting. When we asked BBMP they claim they were unaware of any works or about any permissions regarding that. The road was dug to install a pipe nine feet underground where it was later covered with mud without using jelly stones or a concrete layer. After the heavy downpour the road sunk. We had to manage the situation with traffic coming to a grinding halt since morning till late evening. The civic authorities should think about commuters before taking any action.”
Rain alert
It was Whitefield traffic warden, Manu Mehra, who tried to alert the Commissioner of police, DCP traffic South-East and the Whitefield traffic police through Twitter at 4.15 am after the heavy downpour. She said, “As I control the traffic here I knew the situation so I had to alert all of them to prevent the traffic piling up.”
Twitterati on chaos
@ORR traffic is like Harbhajan Singh’s bowling. Always knew it was bad but has gotten immeasurably worse over the last two weeks.
@One Bangalorean = software engineer. Two Bangaloreans = home delivery app startup. Three Bangaloreans = traffic jam on ORR
@Avg dist in an hour 5km at peak and 10 km @nonpeak at ORR utter nonsense.
@I am road lagged by the time I reach office.
@Today it took me 2 hrs to reach office (10km). Traffic was clogged on ORR, Yamalur, HAL pol stn
