God was not elected by the people of Bangalore and Karnataka to fix Bangalore traffic. We will start with this disclaimer. We can start with another disclaimer, is what the political parties need to declare at the time of the election is the list of issues they will not be able to solve. All politicians know the major issues the city and the state is facing and they can excuse themselves of issues they will not be able to handle or are not interested in handling, in a gentlemanly manner. Every political dispensation evades these issues and more often than not, makes well calibrated information releases, so that the people keep their hopes pinned on them.
When they reach the dead end, they come up with desperate statements of this nature. The very same politicians / political parties / dispensations have been around for a long time, decades together, then what stopped them to create a master plan and go about it. Do different political dispensations have different ways of dealing with Bangalore traffic, radically different from what most of the experts would suggest. First things first, who is ready to own up for the indefinite delay in different Bangalore projects? Metro is the prime one. It has a double impact on the traffic, first, the load which would have gone on to the metro is still on the road and second, the impact metro construction has on the day to day traffic.
From a capital intensive mammoth tech infra issue we turn to the most flimsy. Do we need Gods to come and fix our potholes? It is beyond our imagination how such roads can be created, which get riddled with potholes in no time. About the quality of roads being laid, the less said the better. Courts have successfully failed to sort this out. Then what to talk of our civic agencies, any road can be dug up at any time and anywhere for any duration of time. When the work gets over after months, the place is most shabbily patched, and the public is left to handle it on their own. Sewage / drain openings covered in the most shabby manner after repair etc, is a risk which is laid out for the people on a regular basis.
As if the roads are smooth, seamless and wide, that the powers have created concrete dividers, rock solid, which can put the international borders to shame. Such useless trappings; traffic hazards are in place all around the city. Moving away from the quality of the pavements, all of you agree to the fact most of the pavements have been paceled out by adjoining owners and shops to themselves. Private parking and creating workspace on corporation pavements and even roads is the order of the day. Private obstructions and signages announcing their control of the public space dot the city. The AI enabled cameras are doing a wonderful job we have been told, but we find traffic discipline completely missing. Swiggy Driving has already become an art form. And finally, what about the Kormangala flyover? Forget about its completion, Gods had to come to clear even the accumulated construction waste / garbage accumulated over there over years.
HAVE WE EVER ENABLED TRAFFIC SENSIBLY AND PERSISTENTLY BY ALL COMPREHENSIVE EXPERTISE AND TECHNOLOGY?
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.