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Rediff.com » Business » Flyovers: Big money guzzlers that fail to solve traffic problems

Flyovers: Big money guzzlers that fail to solve traffic problems

October 20, 2015 12:44 IST

It should be clear to all that flyovers don't solve urban traffic problems. They

make them worse by taking away scarce funding from solutions that could, notes

Subir Roy.

Image: Flyovers fail to solve traffic woes in Kolkata. Photograph: Reuters

As the Pujas approached the citizens of Kolkata could sense the feel-good factor well up

within them selves.

They would be getting a great Puja gift: Their longest flyover, from theParam a circle on the

Eastern Bypass to the Park Circus crossing, a full 9.2 km in its final avatar.

W hen entirely com pleted in a year's tim e, you would be able to drive from the airport to the

poshest neighbourhood in town,Alipore, virtually from one flyover to another, without your

feet seriouslytouching dirty earth.

This will be in a city known around the world as oneof the dirtiest, poorest and m ost

congested.

M ost of its citizens, who will not be able to afford to get on to the flyover (why will becom e

clearpresently) will nevertheless presum ably feel better off just by seeing cars zoom ing above

them .

Thereby, a city and state fed for decades on aLeft-inspired m indset of envy will have

com pletely turned around.

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Page 1 of 4Flyovers: Big money guzzlers that fail to solve traffic problems - Rediff.com Business

21-Oct-15http://www.rediff.com/business/report/column-flyovers-big-money-guzzlers-that-fail-to-so...

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Theflyover has been long in com ing. Conceived in 2003, work finally got going in 2010.

After m any stoppages and roadblocks-m ainly because politically well-connected squatters

refused to m ake way-and after pushes and nudges from the high court, m ost of the work is

over and the m ain stretch, except for aflank of less than a kilom etre, has just been thrown

open.

A heavenlyfeeling should now be pervading the city, over and above that created by all the

colourful Puja pandals and the prospects of virtually ten days of publicholiday.

Alm ost everyone has been waiting for this day when the m assivetraffic jam s along the Park

Circus connector, the m ain artery through which toenter the city, will be gone.

But som ething unbelievable has happened.There were m assive jam s from day one on the new

flyover itself, far bigger than those that plagued the connector before the flyover cam e.

It has becom e aprom oter, rather than a term inator, of traffic jam s!

The city's trafficpolice were thrown into a tizzy and started experim enting.

First they m adethe flyover one-way and the underlying connector road one-way in the other

direction.

Eventually they hit upon what seem s to be working-m aking the flyover one-way, towards the

inner city, during the m orning office hours and one-way in the opposite direction (towards the

suburbs) during theevening.

So has this been worth it?The final bill for the flyover, originally estim ated at Rs 330 crore (Rs

3.3 billion), will be m uch m ore with all the project delays.

W hat seem sunbelievable and unforgivable is that absolutely nothing, other than cars and

m otorbikes, are allowed on it-no buses, no bicycles and of course none of that absolute

unm entionable, pedestrians.

This m ust leave out well over 95 percent of those who live in the city.

W hen the final flank is ready and theairport-Alipore dream run will becom e possible, traffic

jam s along the routewill likely go away, if at all, only for a brief period, to return soon in full

force, just like before the flyover cam e.

Right now the flyover along theold Lower Circular Road from Park Circus to Alipore is

sparsely filled byspeeding autom obiles, while the old road underneath is choked with dense

traffic.

It should be clear to all that flyovers don't solve urban trafficproblem s. They m ake them worse

by taking away scarce funding from solutions thatcould.

You can flood a city with low-polluting, CNG-run, com fortable low-floor buses which can be

fitted with GPS sensors to track and ensure thatthey stick to tim ing and route.

The service can be delivered at capitalcosts com parable to building flyovers which m ost can't

use. Proof of conceptlies in the Uber and Ola taxi services.

And once a regular, com fortablebus service becom es available, people will bring out fewer

cars. A city car taxcan push the process forward.

As early as 40 years ago, perceptiveAm ericans were realising that their love affair with cars

and suburban com m utesvia expressways was all wrong.

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W e in India are yet to catch on. GoreVidal, the celebrated Am erican essayist, m ade the point

in a 1974 essay W hatRobert M oses did to New York City. "… after the Second W orld W ar he

(M oses) builtm ore than $2 billion worth of roads within the city. To do this, he expropriated

thousands of buildings, not all of them slum s, and evicted tens of thousands of

people… .M oses's elevated highways shadowed and blighted neighbourhoods. The inner city

began to rot, die."

In M oses's Dream , "there would be no buses or trains on his expressways -just m ore and m ore

highways for m ore and cars, creating m ore and m ore traffic jam s… "

Vidal quotes M oses, in 1974 when the first Opec oil price hike had just struck, as saying, "'W e

live in a m otorised civilisation.' Energy crisis, unlivable cities, pollution -none of these things

had altered his (M oses's) proud Dream ."

M oses's dream liveson in Kolkata.

Subir Roy

Source:

Related News: Robert M oses, GPS, Lower Circular Road, Kolkata, Gore Vidal

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flyovers Big money guzzlers that fail to solve traffic problems - Rediff.com Business