An update on the Seshadri Road flyover project

In an attempt to ascertain the exact details behind the Ananda Rao Circle/ Seshadri Road flyover project, five of us (Harminder and Gitanjali from the Environment Support Group and Suresh, Deepthi and I) visited the office of the Bangalore Development Authority on Thursday, the 30^th of September and met Mr C R Ramesh, the Member Engineer and Mr Guruprasad, the Supervising Engineer of the project.

On discussion it was learnt that the volume of traffic passing through this intersection was the highest in Bangalore and there was a need for a flyover. All the traffic emanating from the Railway Station and Bus Station and proceeding towards the east and south of the city have to pass through this road. The traffic during peak hours is 17000 PCU (passenger car units) per hour while on an average it is 6000 PCU. We obtained a copy of the flyover plan, on preliminary perusal of which, it appears that much of the green cover on Seshadri Road would be spared. However a detailed analysis needs to be carried out.

The up ramp starts from Khoday’s Circle (At the end of Platform Road – the road on which the main entrance to the City Railway Station stands). It is a 5-lane one-way flyover. One lane breaks away into a loop and descends towards RC College and Janata Dal Secular office. The remaining four lanes pass over the stretch of Seshadri Road running from Ananda Rao Circle to Subbanna Circle (at the intersection of Gandhinagar 5^th Main Road, Seshadri Road and Race Course Road – also known as Gandhi Square) and descend into a down ramp and meet the surface a few metres ahead of the fire station, aligned to the left half of the Seshadri Road.

From the plan it appears that trees are not going to be felled till the Central jail premises as was reported in the newspapers. The trees on the left side of the road running up to the fire station, which is approximately 100 metres from Subbanna Circle are going to be felled while the ones on the right are going to remain untouched.

Mr Ramesh emphasized that while it was difficult to carry out infrastructure development without affecting the ecology they were equally concerned about preserving Bangalore’s green heritage and would not fell more trees than necessary. Mr. Guruprasad added that initially about 110 trees were to be felled, but later it was scaled back to 98. This count includes trees on Seshadri Road starting from Khoday’s Circle and a few on Race Course Road. It might be noted that much of the canopy on Seshadri Road is on the stretch from Subbanna Circle to K R Circle.

We also learnt that the feasibility report for the project was prepared by Stup Consultants. We requested for a copy of the same which we hope would be made available in the next few days failing which we propose to place a request for it under the Right to Information Act.

On the whole we found the BDA officials reasonably responsive to our queries belying our apprehensions of non-cooperation.

Further action to be undertaken

1. On the spot inspection of the site to ascertain ground situation
2. Meeting with Mr. Jayaram, Deputy Conservator of Forests to learn about plan for transplantation and planting of fresh saplings in lieu of the ones planned to be felled.
3. Obtaining the feasibility report.
4. Identification and tagging of the 98 trees that are planned to be felled to ensure that no more are felled.
5. Ascertaining nature and extent of use of the old Central Jail premises for this project. Might have to meet Nisha and Mathew Ghosh, architects for the Freedom Park project proposed at Central Jail premises.
6. Meet officials of the Bangalore Turf Club, which abuts the part of Seshadri Road where trees are going to be felled, to explore possibility of planting trees on their premises to make up for the loss.
7. Have design evaluated by experts.
   
8. Over the long term ensure that there is more transparency and public participation in the decision and planning process of these projects.