A cycle lane – a long-pending dream of cycling enthusiasts – may finally be a reality. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will take up the work of creating a dedicated pop-up cycle lane between Silk Board junction and Lowry Memorial College near K.R. Puram along the dedicated bus lane on Outer Ring Road (ORR). The pop-up cycle lane will be over 16-km-long on either side.
A BBMP official said that the pop-up cycle lane would mainly come up adjoining the median towards the right side of the service roads, which are on the left side of the dedicated bus lane.
“The cycle lane will be of two-metre width. Bollards will be installed at every metre to demarcate the lane. In addition, 30-mm asphalting over the existing road will be laid specially for the cycle lane,” the official said, adding that the design of the pop-up cycle lane was prepared by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT).
Another BBMP official said that along with cycle lane, improvement of footpaths would be done, and the tenure of the tender was six months.
V. Manjula, Commissioner, DULT, said that DULT had to redesign a few aspects of the dedicated bus lane in tune with the cycle lane, especially at the entry and exit points and at places where traffic merged. “We have designed dedicated cycle lane stretches wherever possible. At some points, there will be a shared lane,” she said.
She added that the BWSSB had dug up roads in between, and there were stretches where metro work might commence. “We have taken all such issues into consideration while designing the cycle lane,” she said.
“We have provided a detour plan for the cycle lane at Marathahalli bridge and Salem railway bridge as the cycle lane is not viable there,” Ms. Manjula added.
Demand for more lanes
Speaking to The Hindu, Bengaluru’s bicycle mayor Sathya Sankaran said that the agencies concerned should ensure that the project is on track, and that more corridors in the city should have such dedicated safe cycle lanes.
“With the existing plan of width of two metres for the lane, over 10,000 people can use the cycle lane. There are hundreds of companies on the ORR stretch. The pop-up cycle lane will definitely benefit thousands of people working there,” he said adding that the future of mobility needs to be defined now.
He also said that even if 10% to 20% of the employees working in hundreds of companies on ORR use the cycle lane, it would have a great impact and bring a positive change.
Work on Bus Priority Lane to be completed by August-end
The work on the Bus Priority Lane (BPL), the dedicated bus lane on ORR between Silk Board junction and Lowry Memorial College, is gaining pace. The civic body is hoping to complete work by the end of August.
A senior BBMP official said that installation of bollards was almost complete on both the sides – around 16 km on either side – while work on installing signage at entry, exit and merging points was under way.
“Lockdown was announced when we started installing bollards in March. Later due to reduced work force, work was delayed. Now that the important works are complete, we will finish the rest by the end of August,” the official said.
The bus priority lane was initially planned on the 42-km (on both sides) stretch between Silk Board junction and S.V. Road metro station on Old Madras Road. The plan was changed to Silk Board to Lowry Memorial College due to the ongoing metro work between Baiyappanahalli and Whitefield.