Karnataka - Bangalore   

Autorickshaw rally in Bangalore throws traffic out of gear

BANGALORE: Traffic was thrown out of gear and motorists had a harrowing time for over five hours in the central business district (CBD) on Tuesday when thousands of autorickshaws, under the banner of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, took out a procession. The situation is likely to repeat on Wednesday too with another autorickshaw drivers’ union planning to take out a rally.

Even as leaders of the vedike espousing the cause of autorickshaw drivers walked along the road, the vehicles, which had slowed to a crawl, followed them from National College, Basavanagudi, via K.R. Road, Victoria Hospital, City Market, S.J. Park Road and J.C. Road before winding up at Banappa Park on Kempe Gowda Road.

As a result, the morning traffic from and to South Bangalore crawled, bent, jerked and came to a standstill on J.C. Road, S.J. Park Road, N.R. Road, K.G. Road, Lalbagh Road, Kasturba Road, Raja Ram Mohun Roy Road and other surrounding areas. Though the rally reached Banappa Park by 1 p.m., it took almost three hours for the traffic police to restore normal traffic on all busy trunk routes in the CBD.

Abbas Ali, who was travelling by a BMTC bus that was caught in the traffic jam near Town Hall, decided to get down and walk his way to the City Civil Court complex near Cauvery Bhavan. He said, “Today they have allowed autorickshaws drivers to take out a rally along with their vehicles.” And he wondered, “As the truckers’ strike is going on, whether the law-enforcing authorities would allow a truck rally tomorrow?” Apart from having a cascading effect on the ever-choking traffic in the CBD, the rally generated a thick cloud of smoke, as the autorickshaws as well as other vehicles moved at a snail’s pace. When asked, a senior traffic police official regretted about the permission given for the rally.

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