Motorists have been experiencing a harrowing time for the last few days on Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd. (NICE) Road as the stretch has been reporting traffic snarls owing to ongoing roadworks.
A 200-metre stretch of NICE Road, where ongoing work is creating a nearly 2-km-long traffic jam, is resulting in motorists questioning why they have to pay toll and get stuck in traffic. “The main purpose of using NICE Road is to avoid traffic in the city. But the road has huge traffic snarls now, ending up consuming a lot more time than the city traffic. For the last one week, I have been travelling to Electronics City from Nagasandra witnessing a traffic jam every day on NICE Road,” said Rakesh Kashyap, a motorist.
Currently, the NICE is taking up road work near Mallasandra on the NICE Road stretch which sees bumper-to-bumper traffic. The NICE has put up a board diverting vehicles to the narrow stretch which is a one-lane road. Motorists complain that the one-lane road divided for both sides is not enough for the moving traffic. “The diverted one-lane road makes traffic worse as most of the vehicles taking NICE Road are huge trucks which take up almost the entire lane and all other four-wheelers and smaller vehicles behind the trucks, leading to a traffic jam for more than 2 km on both sides of the road,” said another motorist Roshan Cherian, a resident of Bellandur.
Toll collection
Given the current situation, some motorists are objecting to the toll collected by the NICE authorities. Motorists say that the purpose of the road is not served as construction is going on. Raghunath Prasad, a motorist from Hulimavu, said, “I pay ₹80 as toll one way from Bannerghatta Road to Mysuru Road via NICE Road and end up being stuck in the traffic for hours. Then why should I pay the toll and use the road? I would rather take Outer Ring Road and reach Mysuru Road. Government authorities should ask NICE to not collect toll when the road is not ready.”
Experts’ suggestion
Meanwhile, road experts says that the NICE authorities have to minimise the effects on motorists by taking up work during non-peak hours among other measures. Traffic expert M.N. Srihari told The Hindu, “The NICE road is a privately owned road. However, as the road is serving the public, there is responsibility on NICE authorities to make sure the ongoing work will not cause traffic jams and affect the motorists.”
Mr. Srihari suggests that the NICE has to reduce the toll during construction work. “The NICE officials should make alternative arrangements whenever they are taking up such work. I don’t suggest that they shouldn’t collect toll during such time as the road is private and the investment is large, rather I would suggest collecting less toll during the road work period.”
However, according to NICE officials, the work is not affecting the motorists much and they claim that they have taken care of the traffic. Speaking to this correspondent, a senior NICE official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “There is a road elevation work going on in a part of the NICE Road stretch. The work is undertaken to make the road is safer for vehicles. We have been effectively managing traffic where such work is taken up on the stretch.”
