Bridge O Bridge don't flyover

Bangalore traffic police released an advisory to all commuters to be choose alternatives to the Hebbal flyover connecting the airport to KR Puram and into the eastern suburbs of busy and bustling IT hub, the timeline for the expansion of the bridge / flyover is stated as four months. 

This is an important link into the city and connecting , east to west corridors of the city, including three major IT clusters 

All whatsapp groups, X handles carried a  huge uproar about already cramped and jammed roads on this stretch, few even commented that this will go on till 2029 elections model code of conduct are announced.

That is the trust the citizens have on BDA as there are many such sagas of under construction Bridges / flyovers across Bangalore City which the citizens have endlessly waited to be constructed or are under construction, generations are lost in anticipation of a free and smooth traffic conditions.

The story remains the same across large megapolies, all corporation end up delivering such showdy work on critical infrastructure like Bridges / flyovers, the critical West to East flyover of Andheri in Mumbai which went for construction in 2018 after the Railway foot over bridge alongside the flyovers collapsed, leading to loss of lives, the BMC of Mumbai decided to demolish the entire flyover and redo the critical and only connecting link between the island of Andheri to Western express Highway and the population density in Andheri is more than a tier 2 city, an already chocked suburb has been a nightmare for residents and commuters for last 5 years as the BMC post all the drama and delay, has still not fully constructed the flyovers and to surprise of all, the  connector bridge to the flyover which have a two wide meter gap at the intersection, by this act of BMC, it has now added another attraction to the city, where every other person is visiting the site to see this engineering marvel by the biggest and richest corporation of the country and the city, tops in the list of billionaire living, few of whom also use the route to commute, this engineering marvel was discovered after the whole structure was erected and was to be inaugurated, given the time taken and uproar of public the partial flyover was inaugurated by who is who in the machinery along with fanfare while the other half is still kept un attended for free public viewing.

These are examples of lack of ownership,working in sylos and lack of intent to resolve the chronic problems associated with growing traffic problem, bridge after bridge and flyovers are announced without proper planning of execution, once announced the future awaits their arrival, few end up getting ready after a lot of struggle but posing risk to the common public, the quality is questionable.

The past experiences of bridges collapsing are another dimension of mismanagement, the Morbi Bridge saga, while this was meant for light traffic use, imagine if such a quality is being extended to the the flyovers and bridges meant for high traffic zones, it's catastrophe in making, I say this as are there cases where newly built flyovers have crater size pot holes in first few months of inauguration.

There is also lack of scientific upkeep and assesment of older bridges and flyovers, their maintenance is questionable, waiting for a tragedy to happen. These are built to last but with an assumption about the size of traffic but inspite of massive growth in traffic, the old structures are not invested in to strengthen the load bearing capacity.

This calls for thoughtful, planning, high skill engineering, right intent and ownership of the corporation and the governments

Apart from risk of life, they have an negative impact on the productivity while leaving higher carbon footprint.

We will need more such bridges, flyovers and double decker bridges to cater to the future needs, these bridges need to be aligned and mind their gap, else they fly over each other.