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Safety to human lives is the main duty of any civic work; not so in Bangalore, if one goes by many civic amenities created over the years. Safety to human lives is the main duty of any civic

work; not so in Bangalore, if one goes by many civic amenities created over the years. The Chowdaiah Road blues come as a perfect example of Palike’s thoughtless work. This arterial road

faces terrible traffic jolts during peaks hours. An underpass constructed at the intersection of Chowdaiah Road and Bellary Road has forced vehicles to negotiate a steep U-turn to take the

Bellary Road. This is one hurriedly cobbled up underpass constructed in 2008, an achievement for the Bhruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). After the Tuberculosis Institute, there is

Cauvery theatre from where the road bends towards its left. The U-turn becomes chaotic and stressful at any time, especially during rush hour. The turning loop is small and tricky and

vehicles try to overtake one another, leading to traffic jam and scream. The buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles have a trying time when they negotiate this bend. “Thanks to their

engineering expertise, there is always a huge traffic pile-up right from Palace Guttahalli junction of Chowdaiah Road,” says Shyamanna KV derisively. Many a time, he finds himself caught up

in the jam. “When we take the U-turn, we have to crawl below 20km an hour as the road is narrow and U-turn is put up at a steep,” says he. Adding to the pain and stress is a series of

monstrous hoardings with suggestive pictures that divert drivers’ attention. “I don’t know how they get permission to put up such hoardings,” says Bhaskar Rao, proprietor of a creative art

firm. “I try to take this route to avoid the traffic chaos on Jayamahal Road and Queen's Road but sadly traffic on this road during mornings and evenings is worse than on those roads.

Cars coming out of the Cauvery theatre take some space to turn towards this road and vehicles on the left halt completely,” says A Aravinda who works with an insurance company. Because of

this, he comes always late to meet his customers. “I have tried travelling on this road in almost all hours during the day. It becomes confusing during evenings when a lot of vehicles pass

through this intersection. Sometimes, the vehicles moving on the left do not even know that the traffic police have opened the dividers for smooth flow of traffic and it happened with me

many times,” says Lakshmikantha S Rao, another frequent user of this road. BBMP’s views on the underpass are interesting and revealing. It says seven BWSSB pipelines are running parallel to

Chowdaiah Road which they wanted to shift. But this shifting would not only take time but cost three times the cost of the underpass. The underpass cost BBMP about Rs8 crore. “That was for

the first time BBMP was constructing magic boxes using pre-cast materials. So they could not have foreseen these traffic issues then. We do understand that the road is comparatively narrow

for the traffic to be managed. If one car gets stuck, the whole traffic on Chowdaiah Road comes to a grinding halt,” says a source in the BBMP who is in charge of the underpass.