With no skywalk, schoolkids risk lives daily crossing Ring Road

BENGALURU: Children studying in a private school located on the Outer Ring Road near Banashankari have to brave the traffic every day because of the lack of a skywalk or foot overbridge.Every day hundreds of students and parents use this road to reach the school and return home. But they have to cross the road opposite the school, and there is no speed breaker, sub-way or even a traffic signal.Despite repeated requests from the school authorities since 2005 for a foot overbridge, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials have yet to make it a reality.

Crossing the road is a daily ordeal faced by hundreds of children attending the ICSE board-affiliated  Little Flower Public School in Hosakerehalli, and their parents.According to the school, on March 1, 2005, it submitted a written request to the BBMP requesting a foot overbridge.  

Following this, then BBMP special commissioner Subash Chandra constituted a committee, headed by IPS officer K V R Takur, to conduct a  survey. After the survey, the committee submitted a report recommending a foot overbridge near the school.On September 2008, three years after the submission of the request, the BBMP sanctioned a bridge. But till date, no work has been undertaken.Meanwhile, considering the delay, the school has decided to involve parents and launched a signature campaign.
During the annual day event on Friday and Saturday, the school gathered signature from parents.

School principal B Gayethri Devi said, “If we gather 5,000 signatures from parents, it will help us approach the authorities again. Kids and parents are at high risk every day crossing that particular road.”
Darinya, a parent who comes to pick up her Class 2 boy every day, said, “It is really dangerous to cross the road. Vehicles are speeding as it is  a ring road and there is no speed breaker or signal. It takes at least 10 minutes to cross the road.”

“Sometimes 10-15 parents cross together along with the kids. Really it is a bad stretch. I hope the BBMP starts the foot overbridge  construction soon,” said another parent.A parent of a Class 8 child said, “It was okay five-six years ago. But now the traffic density is high and it has become a risk to cross the road.”