Bangalore loves 'traffic jams'!

By SK Shama Sundara

Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008, 15:36 [IST]

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Bangalore, Nov 29: The Bangalore city is infamous for its notorious traffic jams day-in and day-out. Millions of vehicles crawling on the poorly maintained roads towards development is the life style of this IT city. Day-after-day the terror of traffic jam strikes city-dwellers resulting in chaos, trauma, time loss... No wonder, there is someone somewhere always thinking of relocating!

The worst happened again... On Saturday, Nov 29 morning Bangalore road were jammed-up, but this time for a nobler cause. The vast stretch of road leading to the Bangalore International Airport from the center of city was choked right from the morning. The reason being the citizens of north Bangalore were dressed up early in the morning to bid farewell to the fallen hero Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who laid down his life fighting against terrorists in the Mumbai attacks, November 2008.

OneIndia newsroom was flooded with SMS and telephone calls aking us to help alert the public about the vehicular movements coming to a grinding halt on the Airport Road. Specifically the stretch between Hebbal Flyover and the BIAL.

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Take it from us, every message and call was delivered only to alert us about the jam but no one was complaining. The patriotic moods was high and mostly school students in the vicinity of Hebbal, Jakkuru, Snehanagara thronging the area to get a glimpse of the Valiant dead.

A while ago, the same road witnessed the worst traffic Jam in the history of Bangalore. It was a horrendous day when Janata Dal (Secular) Party organized a public meeting in the Palace Grounds on Monday, Nov 17. The occasion: A public function to immortalize the auspicious occasion of HD Kumara Swamy taking over as the President of JD (S) from his father, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

By all accounts, that was a 'Black Monday'. Thousands of vehicles were stranded on all roads leading to the venue. Innumerable schools buses; cabs trying to reach Airport were trapped in the Jam resulting in frustrations and trauma for the young and the ailing.

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The public and the media poured anger and curse on the authorities allowing political parties organizing conventions in the heart of the city. The public unrest and apathy towards political party and city traffic monitors only lead the opposing political factions in the State to engage word wars between them.

The anger of the citizens and the replicating the anger on the media platforms about 'who"s wrong who"s right' ended barely 48 hours after the Jam session. The painful event and brain storming about how to get rid of such jams, now, is part of the city"s history. The pain is forgotten, the debate is over, and life goes on till next time it happens.

According to an estimate, the city has ten lakh vehicles trying to make headway on the highways and exits routes as well in the Silicon Valley. Today"s traffic jam was to mourn the proud death of a NSG soldier. It was tolerated and accepted!