White-topping nightmares to keep Malleswaram residents awake

BENGALURU: Residents of Malleswaram are dreading the coming months as the roads in their locality are set to become jam-packed with vehicles headed towards Pune from the city. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has chosen a busy corridor between Yeshwantpura junction to Malleswaram 18th cross for white-topping, slated to start after three months.

This road, which connects to the Bengaluru-Pune highway, sees heavy traffic daily, which will now be disrupted and diversions may include the already choked Margosa Road and Sampige road. “White-topping this road will mean hindrance to residents who are already battling increasing traffic,” said Shilpa Shenoy, a resident of Malleswaram.

Others say that the project, one of four in the area, with a budget of Rs 129.53 crore, will also affect the routes of BMTC buses, particularly buses in the 90 route series, used mainly by college students. “The new route will mean that we will have to leave home earlier,” said Shraddha, a resident of Margosa road.

Another student Navya Shree, from MES College, said that currently, buses were running once every 15 minutes and were already quite crowded.

Manjunath Raju, councillor for Ward number 65, Kadu Malleshwaram said, “I understand that it is an issue, we will do our best to not disturb residents,” he said.