NHAI to replace 250-mm Medians with 0.85-meter Jersey Barriers on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway

Mysore: In order to minimise accidents on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will replace the existing raised medians with pre-cast concrete Jersey Barriers.

Many vehicles meet with accidents on this Highway as speeding drivers lose control and topple over the median and collide with vehicles moving in the  opposite direction.

Highway Engineers said the Jersey Barriers, made out of concrete, will also minimise damage to the vehicle in the event of accidental contact with vehicles moving on the opposite direction. 

The standard height of Jersey Barriers used by NHAI is about 0.85 meters in contrast to the existing medians on this Highway that are raised up to a height of 250 mm above the road, said NHAI officials.

Jersey Barriers will also provide more space on the Highway for vehicles. Meanwhile, Mysuru Lok Sabha MP Prathap Simha said that he had met the Member, Projects, NHAI, R.K. Pandey in New Delhi, requested him to erect Jersey Barriers instead of “accident-prone and outdated’’ raised medians while discussing the Bengaluru-Mysuru-Madikeri-Bantwal National Highway-275 project.

The Jersey Barriers are expected to be erected as part of the work taken up by NHAI to widen the existing four-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway into a six-lane road, besides the construction of a service road on either side of the Highway. The work on widening the Highway to 10-lane one (including service roads) which began earlier this year, would be completed in 30 months.

Prathap Simha has also urged the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to direct the NHAI to take up the development of Madikeri to Mysuru section of National Highway-275 (Mysuru-Madikeri Economic Corridor Expressway Project along Mysuru-Madikeri NH-275) linking Mysuru and Madikeri in Kodagu on a “high priority 1” list.

Simha told Gadkari that the NH-275 works have been taken up by NHAI, wherein the alignment has been finalised and submitted to NHAI.

The MP said that though the land acquisition process is already on and a Special Land Acquisition Office has been set up at Chamarajapuram in Mysuru, works on the Highway has not yet started. The 115 km-long Expressway costs Rs.6,000 crore and is a fully Centrally-funded Project including land acquisition. 

The 14-metre wide Expressway will connect Madikeri with Bengaluru bypassing Suntikoppa, Kushalnagar, Bylakuppe, Koppa, Kampalapura, Periyapatna, Kallbetta, Gonikoppal Deviation Road, Hunsur and Mysuru. The Expressway will touch the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway at Paschimavahini near Srirangapatna.

Pointing out that the traffic density on the Highway varies from 10,944 PCUs (Passenger Car Units) at Madikeri to 41,896 PCUs at Mysuru, Simha urged Gadkari to consider the project on high priority list and avert traffic congestion and ensure road safety.