‘Vision and expertise needed to fix Outer Ring Road’

BENGALURU:  When executed in 2000-04, it was felt that the Outer Ring Road would be a fix for Bengaluru for the next three decades. It was to be the outer corridor for faster travel and connect inward to the central areas. More than a decade later, half of Bengaluru now lives outside the ORR.
The road has collapsed, particularly on Sarjapur road-Marathahalli stretch. Apart from rampant growth along that corridor and the Whitefield corridor, there are several other reasons for the bad condition of the road. There was to be a ring of green cover alongside the service roads after which campuses and buildings were to come up. Unfortunately, that strip was denotified and consequently, campuses and buildings are now along the service roads. 

The service roads got step-motherly treatment in design and execution too. The poor BWSSB infrastructure put more pressure. The weak drainage system and road geometry are also key causes for potholes. The decision to introduce a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) led to large dual flyovers with space in between for BRTS lane, but the plan was subsequently dropped. Lack of street grids due to large campuses and blocking thoroughfare for private vehicles through these large campuses has only worsened matters. The situation will further be stressed during Metro construction. What the civic agencies need is vision and expertise to fix not just ORR but locate it in Bengaluru’s growth story.
(The writer is an urban infrastructure expert)