Bengaluru: Bengaluru development minister Krishna Byre Gowda Friday directed officials and contractors to accelerate the construction of the long-delayed Wind Tunnel Junction underpass on Old Airport Road and complete the remaining 25% of the work within the next three months.During an inspection of the project site near the UR Rao Satellite Centre, the minister asked the contractor to deploy additional manpower and machinery to speed up execution of the Rs 19-crore project, which is expected to ease congestion at one of east Bengaluru’s busiest traffic bottlenecks.The underpass is part of the city’s long-pending plan to create a signal-free corridor along the Old Airport Road-Whitefield stretch. The project is expected to improve traffic flow towards HAL, Marathahalli, and Whitefield, while reducing delays at the heavily congested Wind Tunnel Junction near Murugeshpalya.Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials said all major utility shifting works linked to the project, including relocation of BWSSB water pipelines, underground sewer lines, Bescom cables, and optical fibre networks, have now been completed, allowing civil works to proceed at full pace. The construction of retaining walls is underway, while installation of pre-fabricated box structures forming the central portion of the underpass is expected to begin shortly.GBA chief commissioner Maheshwar Rao said temporary roads would be laid through land belonging to the defence establishment, Isro, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), and certain private properties to minimise traffic disruptions during the construction. Authorities maintained that vehicular movement on Old Airport Road would continue with minimal inconvenience to commuters.The proposed underpass will be 300 metres long and four lanes wide, with carriageways measuring 7.5 metres on either side. Officials said nearly 75% of the project has already been completed.The project, however, has missed multiple deadlines over the years. Conceived by the erstwhile BBMP as part of a wider corridor improvement programme, the work was delayed by nearly three years due to issues related to traffic management, utility shifting and securing access to land owned by defence agencies and scientific institutions. The construction finally began in April this year with authorities initially promising completion within 100 days before revising the timeline to six months. Officials are now targeting completion by Oct.
