Bengaluru’s Airport Road Service Roads Near Completion After 8-Year Delay

Bengaluru’s long-delayed service roads along the busy airport corridor (NH 44) are finally nearing completion, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) setting October as the deadline. The two stretches 1 km near Esteem Mall in Hebbal and 1.1 km at Jakkur are expected to ease congestion on one of the city’s most critical routes.

Both service roads will be around 10 metres wide, with two lanes, paved shoulders, a 2.5-metre utility duct, and a 1.5-km drain. The projects were stalled for nearly eight years due to land acquisition hurdles, but gained momentum after NHAI secured the required land.

“These service roads were excluded earlier as land wasn’t available,” said Vilas P. Brahmankar, NHAI’s Regional Officer (Bengaluru). At Hebbal, work also includes widening a minor bridge to channel water from Hebbal Lake into the stormwater drain. “The bridge is ready up to slab level and needs 28 days of curing. Continuous rainfall has delayed the bitumen layer, as the surface must be dry,” said Project Director KB Jayakumar.

However, progress at Jakkur has slowed due to pending tree-cutting approvals. “We’ve built 500 metres and laid bitumen. To finish the rest, we demolished part of the Jakkur aerodrome building and need clearance to cut 15–20 trees. Despite paying ₹10.5 lakh to BBMP’s forest cell, permission hasn’t come through,” Jayakumar noted.

He estimated the Hebbal stretch could be completed in 30 days, while Jakkur may need 40 days if approvals arrive in time. Shifting water pipelines and coordinating with state agencies also posed challenges during construction, he added.

Residents have welcomed the development. A Yelahanka resident said the Hebbal service road was long overdue: “Buses towards Chikkaballapur, Andhra Pradesh, and Hyderabad halt near Esteem Mall to pick up passengers, blocking traffic. The service road will help ease airport-bound flow from the flyover.”

While traffic police flagged congestion near Hebbal, NHAI officials denied disruptions. “We haven’t used existing carriageway space, so there’s no question of traffic being affected,” Brahmankar said.

Once complete, the new roads are expected to significantly streamline traffic movement on the vital airport corridor.