City Beat 

Ongoing Road Construction Troubles Residents of Kothanur–Hennur

The ongoing roadworks along the Kothanur-Hennur stretch of Bengaluru roads continue to impact the daily travel of residents and motorists, and there is still confusion about how long this project will take to complete. Roadwork is still ongoing within many of the key road segments adjacent to Kothanur and Hennur, including areas that remain cut up, continue to be damaged from digging, and are poorly managed.

Even though roadwork has been underway for several months in these areas, residents continue to report that there are still no developed road surfaces along these segments of the community. The constant digging up and placement of loose gravel at various locations, along with an uneven surface, make the travel to destinations much more challenging, especially during periods of high-volume traffic. The amount of time it takes to travel short distances can become significant, particularly where major intersections have reduced lanes due to construction work.

Travellers and pedestrians are the most significantly impacted by the continual removal of road surfaces, particularly where traffic has moved from paved travel surfaces to areas where dust has replaced public road surfacing, and those areas lack safety measures of any type, such as signage and/or barricades. Meanwhile, many taxi drivers, auto drivers and cab drivers have also complained about increased vehicle damage due to slow-moving drivers and increased fuel usage because of the slow-moving traffic patterns along these roadways.

The residents of this area have reported they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the repeated disruptions along the roads, but with no visible evidence of progress made by the road construction work. 

Some residents believe that the ongoing construction in their vicinity has created obstacles to travelling on a daily basis. There are concerns that the uneven terrain created from the various construction activities and the amount of dust in the air will create safety issues. In addition, another major concern has been the potential negative impact that the construction has had on the children and senior citizens using the various roads affected by the construction.

The local government has indicated that the aforementioned construction is part of an overall infrastructure development plan, however, the residents have indicated that the overall planning and coordination of the project has been poor. Some of the more significant complaints raised by the residents include repeated areas of excavation due to lack of inter-agency coordination and no defined timelines for completion.

The residents agree that development is a good thing. However, they would prefer that before any future construction projects are started, the developer has a plan to efficiently construct the project without causing too much disruption to the daily lives of the residents.