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Elitist infra projects - BETL
Written By Photoyogi - 30 September, 2010
Bangalore BETL PPP Elevated Roads Citizen Reports Infrastructure Flyovers and underpasses
Being elitist may never payoff and more so if you you have an elitist attitude towards Infrastructure projects
On August 23, 2010, I was driving back from Madurai and took the Elevated Road that links E City to Silk board jn. Envisioned and supported by IT giants.
A project that was acclaimed a "successful" PPP project and most of the "P" were from E-City who wanted a quick connectivity to the over congested NH7. A project that had a lot of labour pain before delivery.
The road is Gooood, Hey... I was cruising at a steady 80 KMPH I feel happy that this is one of the good roads that Bengaluru has. Mind you, any one who drives along that road would be proud looking at namma Bengaluru's iconic IT development. Just a few kilometers on and i saw an IT techie who was pushing his bike..... he had a flat tire, I felt very bad as he had to push his bike possibly several kms before he gets to the other end.
Another few Kms i see another IT techi carrying his friends helmet and laptop bag and walking along while his friend is pushing his bike. My guess was that they had run out of fuel.
If only this road was designed with less elitist perspective ... The 10KM road would have had 1-2 turns connecting other parts in between Silkboard Jn and E-City. This could have helped the common people in those areas as well.
Its not that we (praja) had not thought of this earlier, here is a praja blog on similar lines - silk board elevated highway
This was a an original post on my facebook http://facebook.com/photoyogi
COMMENTS
Naveen - 1 October, 2010 - 05:42
I think BETL type freeways are also necessary for the city, but what was wrong with this is that the authorities went ahead with the elevated tollway before positioning a mass transit along Hosur rd (accommodating demands from car lobbies).
Ideally, Metro ph-1 should have been routed from Tumkur rd to Hosur rd /EC (instead of Jayanagar-Kanakapura rd). One reason why Metro did not up come along Hosur rd is because earlier study reports kept repeating Jayanagar for ELRTS & Metro route planning also went the same way, instead of considering new realities & far more development on Hosur rd.
BETL is bound to struggle now with the shift of users to PTs. The Metro route along Hosur rd in ph-2 will only make it worse for them.
ashok_n - 30 September, 2010 - 10:10
Photoyogi,
Your post about BETL being an elitist project is bang on target. This is simple waste of tax-payers money. 5-6 well designed flyovers/underpasses would have achieved the same result, by making the stretch signal-free. The cost would have been just 200 crore, and not 800 crores spent on it. And also PT would have greatly benefitted.
A "Bangalore Elevated Toll Road" is a glamourous project compared to 5-6 flyovers. Some egos are hard to satisfy.
Off topic, but I feel the HSRL to the airport will be a similar white-elephant - elitist, glamourous, and useless. (please do not discuss HSRL in this thread... this is just a comment)
srinidhi - 30 September, 2010 - 12:37
Hey Praveen,
Long time not seen you here..yes BETL can be called elitist however coming to your points of vehicle breakdown on the road..I remember seeing lay byes on the bridge designed for such situations..these have telephones which can be used to call for help..
so think thats taken care of..its just that we need to start using it..
However this bridge is more like the other costly mistakes that Blr is getting used to these days..
National College Flyover
Tagore circle underpass
TTMC's
etc
Still hope authorities will learn from all this..
nl.srinivas - 1 October, 2010 - 04:51
Can't call it elitist. It is poor planning as with many such projects.
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