BANGALORE: Repair work on Miller’s Road continues despite the BWSSB official’s assurance that the work would be completed within 25 days. Miller’s Road previously handled all the incoming traffic from MG Road, Chinnaswamy stadium, Shivajinagar and as well as that from the GPO. As notified by the Bangalore traffic police, vehicles now take the left after Fortis hospital which leads to Thimmaiah Road. The parallel road once known for its tranquility is suffering with heavy traffic. The BWSSB had blocked the road for vehicles as on May 10 in order to replace the pipelines as reported by City Express’ on May 9, ‘Repair works begin on Miller’s Road.’The revamp work is causing severe problems for everyone. Sheetal, an employee of a company on Cunningham Road, informed that the blocks cause a lot of distress for late night bus users in the city. She said, “I have been taking the bus home from work everyday from the past 5 years. I leave my office by 9 pm and reach home by 9.45 pm. But now, due to the jams, I reach home only by 10.30 pm. I end up spending a lot of time commuting due to the time lag.” When City Express inspected the site, it was found that the vehicles had queued up all the way from the beginning of Cunningham Road at 10 am itself. Bhavya Shanmugam, a frequent visitor of Alliance Francaise has her own problem. She said, “I used to love visiting Alliance Francaise because the place is very green and used to be so quiet. Now with the vehicles’ honking and traffic jams which are there almost 24 hours a day, the whole purpose of coming here for solace is lost.”Miller’s Road plays host to several restaurants. Business has been affected in a way they can not comprehend. As the road is blocked, people rarely traverse through that way. According to some of the store owners here, their business has been badly affected in the last one month. A restaurant owner voiced his concerns on the condition of anonymity. He said, “Business is sinking. I do realise in the long run the repair is good for us. But the problems it is creating is hard to handle.”With nearby colleges such as Mount Carmel College and St Ann’s college just about to start their academic year, the officials are running on a sand clock here. Srijitha, a student of Mount Carmel College, said that if the repair work extend until after the start of the colleges, students might have to walk all the way from the colleges to the Cunningham Road busstop to catch a bus everyday. Adding to the woes of the pedestrians is the absence of traffic signals on Cunningham road until the Chandrika Hotel cross. Pedestrians didn’t face a problem before the diversion was made. But now, due to the bottle-neck, crossing the road has become quite an adventurous task. Anuraj another pedestrian, said, “As if the situation was not bad enough after the diversion crossing the Road is a tedious process, despite the presence of pelican lights no one stops.”Satish, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) assistant executive engineer said, “The BWSSB work for the area is done. We have finished laying out our pipelines. Now it is left to the BBMP to finish the work.” Despite his claims, when the area was visited it was observed that the area around the Vasanthanagar bus stop was still in a state of turmoil. Upon contacting the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Somshekhar, cfief engineer east, said, “The BWSSB will soon hand over their work to us. We will commence our assignment in a week.” He also added that the completion of the work would take 15 days after the process gets under way. It will be a long wait to see a pothole free Miller’s Road and a longer wait for the shopkeepers as they wait for their lives to return to normal.
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