Debris dumped on Bengaluru’s Hennur bridge impacts traffic, poses safety risk

Civic Issues

According to regular commuters, the waste was dumped on the bridge 3-4 months ago but no action has been taken by the authorities since then.

Soumya Chatterjee

Dumping of construction and demolition waste on the Hennur bridge, which connects Kalyan Nagar and Nagawara over the New Airport Road in north Bengaluru, has made driving agonising for regular commuters on the stretch. With frequent rainfall, not only has this forced all vehicles to move in a single file resulting in traffic snarls but also made the area prone to accidents. Sampath Ramanujam, who was driving down the stretch on Wednesday evening, had a stroke of luck narrowly escaping an accident.  “It was raining heavily and all vehicles were plying in a single lane due to this debris on the bridge. While I was wondering how come someone used a bridge to dump waste materials, my car went over the divider as I tried to avoid crashing into an overtaking lorry. Fortunately, I was able to prevent my vehicle from toppling as I was on low speed,” he said. “But discarding construction material on top of the bridge is atrocious and looks like the BBMP is overlooking this. This can cause many such accidents for sure and it is a risk to the bridge itself,” Sampath added. Nadia Zaccharia, a resident of the area who uses the stretch for her regular commute, said that the dumping has been an issue for some time now and the rains have made it worse. She said, “It’s most problematic for people who are driving towards the Outer Ring Road.” According to locals, the debris was dumped overnight on the bridge 3-4 months ago and since then no action has been taken by authorities. In a recent directive by BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, the zonal commissioners of each zone in the city is responsible for the upkeep of major roads. TNM could not reach the East Zonal Commissioner or concerned officials for comment. The BBMP has also recently identified a site for setting up its own Construction & Demolition waste recycling plant.

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