Silk Board: A traffic hotspot, nightmare for pedestrians in Bengaluru | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: Silk board junction, infamous for city’s chaotic traffic, is also a dangerous intersection for pedestrians attempting to navigate through unrelenting vehicular movement.The junction, which connects Hosur Road, Outer Ring Road, and roads from BTM Layout, HSR Layout, and Banashankari, forms a crucial transport hub in the city’s road network. Yet, it lacks fundamental infrastructure such as zebra crossings or dedicated signals, making each road crossing a potential hazard.Traffic pours in from all directions at this notorious junction, where every hour feels like peak hour. Rohith B, 31, a JP Nagar resident who commutes regularly through the area, said, “It’s quite dangerous. There’s a bus stop nearby, and people tend to cross even when the signal is green. The cops don’t always intervene either. There should be a dedicated pedestrian signal or officers to stop traffic, but that’s missing. People are always in a rush, so it turns into complete chaos. There have been many close calls for me as I have almost hit pedestrians. It’s a scary ride.”The dangers became reality for Shanthi, a 35-year-old coconut vendor, who suffered a serious accident last year. “It was around 7pm, and it was raining. I was crossing the road when a mini truck hit me and I had to be hospitalised for a long time due to a spinal injury. This has always been a problem for years, and there have been multiple hit-and-run accidents here. No one cares about pedestrian safety, cops are also not there all the time,” she recounted.For daily commuters, it’s also a time-consuming process to navigate through the junction. Rama Lalitha, a 23-year-old technology worker, expressed her frustration: “It’s a huge waste of time just trying to cross the road. Not just vehicles, we too get stuck at the junction with no proper infrastructure — zebra crossing, pedestrian signal or even basic footpath — to cross the road. We are forced to risk our safety and dash across the road just to avoid being late to work. For such a major junction, basic amenities for pedestrians is the least that should be in place.”Official Speak:We need a foot-over bridge (FOB) or an underpass to solve the problem permanently. The junction is extremely crowded because of the bus stand. Every time there’s a pedestrian-related incident, we write to BBMP about the need for infrastructure. But the usual response is that they will look into it once the Metro and double-decker flyover works are completed.— Senior police officer, south divisionBBMP has plans to develop pedestrian-friendly infrastructure at the signal. Specific details will be disclosed soon.— Prahald BS | chief engineer (road & infra) BBMP
