Asia's lengthiest flyover now in Bangalore. Review on Bangalore

Thanks to some progressive thinking bureaucrats, Bangalore is rapidly ramping up its infrastructure facilities. The most recent example of this trend is the construction of a multi-ramped, clover-leaf shaped flyover in Hebbal, that is being described as one of the lengthiest flyovers constructed in Asia. The 5.5 km flyover provides allows uninterrupted traffic flow in one of the most traffic-intensive roads (NH7) in Bangalore, apart from giving a much-needed make-over to Bangalore.

Gammon India and BDA deserve to be congratulated for the excellent work they've done in building the Hebbal Flyover in a record time.

As a regular vehicle user of NH 7 via Hebbal, I know the amount of hardship we had to go through before the construction of this flyover. The best part about the construction of this flyover was the way in which Gammon India and BDA handled the traffic on this busy highway. I can't remember even a single day when the vehicle users had to face any traffic inconvenience due to the construction of this flyover. Gammon India engaged its workers round-the-clock to get the flyover in shape for the New Year 2004. Even when it was imminent that the traffic had to be diverted due to the construction work, Gammon India ensured that alternative pathways were created to prevent any major traffic jam.

One of the carriageways of the flyover was completed by December 2002, in time for the Air Show at Yelahanka and the rest of the 5 loops of this massive flyover were completed in the next one year. This, I feel is a lesson for all other construction companies who take up major public construction work in Bangalore. We've seen long delays in construction, endless traffic problems and utter disregard for people's time in many earlier projects. The Mysore Road flyover, the Mekhri Circle underpass, Krishnarajapuram hanging bridge and the Silk Board junction flyovers are a case in point. These projects never seemed to end and less said the better about the plight of vehicle users.

In that respect, Gammon-BDA combination's efforts in getting the Hebbal Flyover construction done in record time with minimal incovenience to road users is definitely appreciable. However, the completion of Hebbal Flyover has shifted potential traffic bottlenecks now to other parts of NH7. The narrow bridge over the storm water drain near Diary Farm after Hebbal, the Ganganagar junction and the Cauvery Theatre junctions have become the new traffic hotspots. Mr. S. M. Krishna's ambition of converting the stretch of NH7 between Hebbal and High Grounds police station into a Metro Corridor is a welcome move. It remains to be seen how fast such a Corridor will become a reality.