Flyover as a congestion-killer is an idea that was dumped worldwide decades ago. Yet, the obsession with these elevated, “signal-free” corridors continues. Despite seasoned mobility analysts crying out loud that flyovers only shift congestion and don’t remove it, 17 such behemoths are on the government’s agenda for Namma Bengaluru.
The real congestion-killers – a 15,000-plus fleet of BMTC buses, fast-tracked suburban rail and Namma Metro, a robust Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) to plan and coordinate all things mobility – are all in slow motion. Meanwhile, the government announces its decision to build 17 elevated corridors on key arterial roads with a total length of 100kms. The estimated project cost: ₹12,000 crore.
Eight years ago, the proposal to build a steel flyover from Chalukya Circle to Mehkeri Circle had triggered unprecedented public protests. The prospect of a concrete monster slicing through the city’s heart, felling hundreds of fully grown trees, faced a backlash so strong that the project was shelved a year later. However, the idea of such flyovers as the perfect fit for motorised mobility never lost traction among the decision-makers.
File photo of traffic congestion on Bellary road (KIA airport road), on Hebbal flyover.
| Photo Credit:
MURALI KUMAR K
Flawed development model
Vinay K. Sreenivasa from the Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike attributes this ‘stubbornness’ of seeing only flyovers /elevated corridors as development to an economy built around them. “It is easier to profit from such projects than, say, a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). Although BRTS will make more money, for some reason they see only the corridors as development,” he elaborates.
Since the official mobility policy has for decades favoured the motorists, the latter tend to approve and even demand such projects. As Vinay points out, “Car-goers ask for this. They don’t want bus lanes, they don’t want public transport. They just want their cars to go fast.”
Once obsessed with moving cars and SUVs and not people, developed cities are now demolishing flyovers to make way for shared mobility. Private, personal vehicles are being disincentivised and made prohibitively expensive to drive within the city. But here, notes Vinay, even the big industrialists are backing and building elevated corridors such as the one on Hosur Road. “They are the ones who have widely travelled. They can see what works and what doesn’t, but they are pushing for these projects,” he laments.
People are now shifting their homes away from the work zones to distant locations on the city’s periphery. Inevitably, this has triggered a huge demand for longer travel, increasing the trips to 18 million and beyond.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu
18 million motorised trips
The city has an estimated population of about 15 million (1.5 crore). “Assuming that the per capita trip rate is close to 1.2 where everyone –including senior citizens and children – is doing 1.2 non-walking, motorised trips, you have 18 million trips every day. While bus travel accounts for about 4 to 4.5 million trips and the Metro about a million, you have 12.5 million trips to address,” says Pawan Mulukutla, Executive Director. Transport at the World Resources Institute (WRI) India.
Now the burden of filling this 12.5 million gap is on private personal vehicles and shared commute options, the two-wheelers, cars, auto rickshaws and other modes. Is this feasible, and are flyovers the way ahead?
Pawan is clear that public transport should take care of at least 10 million trips. “What should the government do at the policy level to enable this? How can they augment the fleet? I have been tracking BMTC for years, and haven’t seen the bus numbers touch 7,000. This should change. This understanding should creep into the political economy.”
Long-commute needs
One sure-shot way to arrest congestion is to curtail the need to commute long distances. This implies building residential areas close to the workplaces. But the mushrooming of work clusters in and around Hebbal, Outer Ring Road, HSR Layout, Koramangala besides Whitefield and Electronic City has made housing extremely pricey in these areas. The assumption, as Pawan notes, was the property prices and amenities would be uniform. “But that doesn’t hold good now. Housing has now created an over-demand for mobility needs.”
The trend, clearly visible across the city, is this: People are now shifting their homes away from the work zones to distant locations on the city’s periphery. Inevitably, this has triggered a huge demand for longer travel, increasing the trips to 18 million and beyond.
Will flyovers solve this problem? “Flyovers only create bottlenecks. They do not solve the problem if you are not expanding the end-to-end capacities of the roadway / public transport, like say from South to North, East to West, by at least 40-50 km. All that you do is shift the problem to different parts of the city. Within months, you can see the congestion spreading, ending up 3 km upstream or downstream,” he explains.
Prioritise alternative modes
The solution, as Zibi Jamal from the Whitefield Rising reiterates, is to prioritise the completion of the suburban rail, add another 10,000 BMTC buses and enhance Metro connectivity with more coaches. “The promise of completing the suburban train project within 40 months is forgotten, the deadline unattainable. The collective wisdom says buses will solve the problem. Flyovers incentivize private vehicle ownership and from the world over, we have seen the traffic will just not end,” she says.
Indeed, the Metro project is moving with Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) unveiled for new lines and reaches. But as Zibi points out, the city needs eight-car trains and not the existing six. This will help increase the frequency from eight minutes to five minutes, mitigating the mad rush during peak-hours. Due to capacity constraints, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is often forced to run services on loop, stranding thousands at multiple stations.
To drive home the congestion problem, the government talks about 1,500 new cars being added to the city’s roads. Zibi’s point is this: “If you tell people that they are getting these flyovers and corridors, the trend will continue. As the Metro rush shows, people are willing to take the public transport, but make it comfortable and convenient. Add more buses, build good bus stops and they will come.”
There are ways to work around constraints. Pawan draws attention to the need for policy regulations that mandate land developments in excess of 500 homes to themselves arrange shared commute options to the closest Metro Stations. “Why is the government being a mute spectator? The developers should be asked to put up the infrastructure to support the commute needs. Many of these are within 2-3 km of a Metro Station,” he explains.
Reduce private vehicles
Reducing the dependence on private vehicles for work trips is the fundamental principle of congestion management, says Pawan. “Work trips happen during peak hours from Monday to Friday. Most complaints about congestion relate to three-hour hours in the morning and four-five hours in the evening. Why not let people take 7 metre buses that BMTC can operate under its brand to link all Metro stations to nearby residential areas?”
Alternative options are available and doable if they are explored and activated beyond the realm of flyovers and elevated corridors. Flyovers can only address traffic at a micro level, at an intersection. As he stresses, “At a city scale, do they solve congestion? The answer clearly is no. In Mumbai, under Nitin Gadkari as PWD Minister, they built 45 flyovers on the Eastern and Western express highways. Everything is a chokepoint today. Gadkari himself has gone on record at multiple forums, admitting that it was a wrong solution.”