Bengaluru: Two service roads being built along NH-44, which leads to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), are now close to completion. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said the work should be done by October.
One road, one kilometre long, is being built opposite Esteem Mall in Hebbal. The second, about 1.1 kilometres in length, is under construction in the Jakkur area. Each of these new roads will have two lanes and include paved shoulders. They will be about 10 metres wide. There will also be a 2.5-metre-wide space for utilities and a 1.5-km-long drain.
What took so long?
These roads are expected to ease traffic, which often gets very heavy on the way to the airport. The project was delayed for eight years mainly due to land acquisition problems. Once the land was finally secured, NHAI began work.
“These roads were not included in the earlier work plan because the required land wasn’t available at that time,” said Vilas P Brahmankar, NHAI’s regional officer in Bengaluru. At the Esteem Mall spot, NHAI is also making a small bridge wider so that water from Hebbal Lake can flow more easily into the stormwater drain.
“The bridge structure is ready up to the slab stage and now needs 28 days to cure. We haven’t laid the bitumen yet because it’s been raining nonstop. The surface has to be dry before the bitumen can be added,” said KB Jayakumar, the project director at NHAI in Bengaluru. He also said the work had many difficulties, especially because they had to move water pipes.
Jayakumar added that getting help from state government departments was needed for the work to move forward. But in Jakkur, progress has slowed because they’re still waiting for approval to cut some trees.
“We’ve built about 500 metres of the road and already added bitumen. To finish the rest, we had to pull down part of a building near Jakkur aerodrome last week. We now need to remove 15 to 20 trees. Even though we paid Rs 10.5 lakh to the BBMP forest cell, we still don’t have the approval. These aren’t even old or large trees,” he explained.
Hebbal stretch to be ready in 30 days
Jayakumar said the Hebbal stretch should be done in around 30 days. The Jakkur side could take 40 days more—if the tree-cutting permission is granted soon. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic – Northeast), Pradeep BU, mentioned that construction work in the Hebbal area is making traffic worse.
However, Brahmankar disagreed. “We didn’t use any part of the main road, so traffic flow shouldn’t be affected,” he said. Jayakumar also supported this view. A resident of Yelahanka shared that the service road at Hebbal is much needed.
“In the evenings, buses going towards Chikkaballapur, Andhra Pradesh, and Hyderabad stop here to pick up people. This blocks the road, especially during the rainy season. Once the new road is open, it’ll help airport traffic move faster after getting off the Hebbal flyover,” he said.