NICE road

Hosur Road

Electronics City

bumpy ride

I take the NICE road to my office which is on Mysore road because it’s faster. However, there are countless potholes from Tumkur road to Mysore road. It’s as bad as driving on other toll-free roads. Suraj Hosakote, a regular commuter

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Hosur

The entry and exit points of the road are full of potholes

Commuters pay Rs 5 per kilometre to use thewhich is a crucial connectivity corridor. But with potholes every 500 metres, where is the toll money going, enquiring minds want to knowIrony died on the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Road otherwise known as the NICE road. It probably had a fatal accident on one of the numerous potholes on the private road that connects the city to major roads -, Mysore road, Bannerghatta road, Magadi Road and Tumkur road.Techies and regular commuters who take this road to work and back are saying it’s in a bad shape and getting worse by the day. Several techies who work in thetech-corridor take the NICE road from Bannerghatta road or the Mysore road as it was touted as a hassle-free, zero traffic-jam stretch. But from the past few months, these commuters are realising that the NICE road offers no advantages, in fact, the disadvantages are plenty.Girish Kerodi, Co-Founder Verbinden Communication and ELCITA (Electronics City Industrial Township Authority) member says, “It is a private road that is not being maintained well at all. We pay Rs 5 per km as toll and almost all the techies in this part of the city take the road. I wonder if the government could interfere in the maintenance of the road.”Commuters say that the Tumkur Road entry and Mysore Road entry to the NICE road is full of large and small potholes, every 500 metres or less. Suraj Hosakote, a resident of Peenya and a regular commuter on Mysore road said, “It is afor me every day. I take the NICE road to my office which is on Mysore road because it’s faster. However, there are countless potholes from Tumkur road to Mysore road. Every 500 meters we can see huge craters and it is the same until the exit. It’s as bad as driving on other toll-free roads.”The commuters also complained that the entry and exit points of this road are full of potholes. Ravi Reddy from Tech Mahindra said, “We need four entry/exit ways for the NICE road instead of two as it causes traffic jams. The exit roads are so bad that the traffic gets choked here every day.”On Thursday when Bangalore Mirror launched the first ‘Tech Halli’ conclave, techies urged the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwathnarayan CN, who was present at the event, to intervene and see to it that the road was maintained well. Addressing the issue Ashwathnarayan said, “I recently travelled on the NICE road and this road has more potholes than regular streets in the city. The government can definitely interfere and tell the authorities concerned to fix the roads. We will write to the authorities and see what can be done.”Another techie questioned, “What are we paying the toll fee for? We pay Rs 48 for two-wheelers and Rs 135 for four-wheelers from PES University toroad. From Hosur road to Tumkur road we pay Rs 63 for two-wheelers. These are common routes which techies use regularly. When the road is in such a bad condition, why do we have to pay so much as toll?”The commuters have also raised issues with the criss-cross junction at the Electronics City exit on Hosur road. “For more than 1.5 hours we get stuck here because of the criss-cross junction from the NICE exit. And this is just to travel 10 km. It would be great if traffic authorities or the NICE authorities close this cross.”Commuters complain that this junction is a mess every day during peak hours. Vehicles coming from side roads and wanting to join the traffic stream on the Hosur Road, cause the block, say commuters.The same problem exists on the Bannerghatta road as there is a criss-cross exit and entry from the road. Commuters travelling to E-City could do so taking a simple left turn, but now have to take a right turn, negotiate a U-turn and then join the road to E-city. Those commuters taking the Mysore Road to Bannerghatta road have to go left, take a U-turn then join NICE road. This makes it a convoluted route for the commuters and they end up spending a long time at this point.However, a group of techies are meeting with their representatives to raise this issue and submit a memorandum to make commutes on NICE road easy for regulars. A NICE official said that they had begun asphalting the road and would soon rectify it. However, commuters say that even in those small stretches where the asphalting is being done, there are so many bad stretches which have been ignored by the NICE personnel.A spokesperson from NICE said, “We are aware of the issue. The reason for this was the rains which have caused the rutting (the top layer comes off) of the road. We are already fixing it in places where it has been badly damaged. We were also waiting for the rains to stop so that we can take up the road work. This is rutting of roads, and these are not potholes.”The spokesperson also added, “With respect to exit and entry points at NICE junction, we are working on a solution which will allow commuters to move faster. We are working on the roads as well. We are coming up with technology-based systems like FASTags (electronic toll collection system) and Smartcard facilities. We are yet to make an official statement on that,” he added.