Over a year on, bottlenecks around Bengaluru-Mysuru access controlled highway continue to choke traffic movement

Vehicles crawl near the Panchamukhi Ganesha temple, where traffic from the flyover and service road merged, creating a major bottleneck. In addition to the vehicular traffic, pedestrian safety at the junction has become a major concern. With thousands of people using the Challaghatta metro station, crossing the road has become dangerous due to the lack of pedestrian infrastructure.

You drive for less than two hours on a smooth, access-controlled highway from Mysuru to Bengaluru only to find yourself stuck in traffic for an hour as you descend from the Kumbalgodu elevated flyover. Frustrating, right?

This is the reality for motorists travelling between the two cities, particularly on weekends. The time-saving journey feels like a trade-off.

Covering the 117-kilometer distance on the access-controlled highway should take roughly two hours, but once drivers reach the outskirts of Bengaluru, the last kilometer between Panchamukhi Ganesha temple and the NICE Road Junction becomes an exhausting crawl, taking at least an additional hour to pass this stretch.

Despite the ongoing bumper-to-bumper traffic issues since the highway’s inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 12, 2023, several interventions have been suggested to address the congestion, particularly at the Kumbalgodu elevated corridor.

One proposed solution is to extend the elevated flyover to the NICE Road Junction. While traffic management efforts are currently in place, with police deploying additional personnel on weekends, better coordination among authorities is still needed.

Additionally, the construction of a foot-over-bridge (FoB) near the Challaghatta metro station aims to enhance pedestrian safety and reduce the risks associated with heavy traffic.

The problem worsens during the evenings, when over 70,000 vehicles use the Bengaluru-Mysuru National Highway on weekends. The heavy traffic flow leads to severe congestion on the elevated stretch between the highway and Bengaluru city, making weekend travel a nightmare for both commuters and local residents.