Bengaluru to get lanes of actual control

BBMP will spend Rs 40 crore to install pelican signals, lane markings, rumble strips and signboards

One might soon be greeted with white and brightly coloured markings on almost all arterial and sub-arterial roads in the City. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to paint public roads and junctions to bring about lane discipline among motorists. Installing rumble strips, signboards and pelican signals are also part of BBMP’s grand plan, estimated to cost a whopping Rs 40 crore. (Pelican signals have a ‘Press’ button that pedestrians can activate to turn a traffic light green and allow them to cross the road. At many signals, there is a beep heard until the pedestrians cross to the other side, a feature that’s helpful to the vision impaired.)
These works, being implemented by BBMP’s traffic engineering cell (TEC), are proposed under 15th Finance Commission grants. While the civic body has undertaken similar works in the past, this appears to be the first time that such a large-scale plan is being chalked out.

Zones such as East and Mahadevapura have received a lion’s share with an allocation of around Rs 8 crore each. While RR Nagar and Bommanahalli zones will share a grant of Rs 9.49 crore, West and South zones have received the least allocation of Rs 6.8 crore. A total of 7.9 crore have been earmarked for both Dasarahalli and Yelahanka zones. The civic body plans to complete the work in the next six months.

The tenders, which were floated on Friday, indicated that the BBMP’s action plan also includes providing scientific road humps, medians, painting of medians and kerbstones, high rise pedestrian facility and other road safety furniture as per proposals sent by the traffic police. The BBMP has, however, not disclosed additional details on the project or the bill of quantities on the e-procurement portal.



Good project but transparency missing
Prof Ashish Verma, Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru said that road markings are needed but have the least compliance rate. “Lane markings help both in traffic management and road safety. They are soft measures that do not create barriers. The value of lane markings has been least understood both by agencies and motorists,” he said.

Some citizens wanted the BBMP to take ward committees into account while preparing the micro plan. Srinivas Alavilli, who works for Janaagraha, said the massive investment must be followed with better enforcement. “We do not see many people violating the red signal to cross the road. Such discipline is needed while following the lane system too. Hence, enforcement is a must. It will be ridiculous to keep installing bollards everywhere,” he said.

MV Srinivas, Executive Engineer at BBMP (TEC) did not respond to calls.