Quiet village turns into crucial corridor

Quiet village turns into crucial corridor
The Times of India

Bangalore: Vijaynagar has evolved from an unknown village called Hosahalli in the 1970s to a happening residential locality in Bangalore’s western expanse.

In the past few years, Vijaynagar has developed as a crucial corridor to the western and southwestern stretches of Bangalore. A stretch of Chord Road linking Mysore Road, another crucial stretch linking Jnanabharati and Ring Road thereafter, a rail overbridge linking J.J. Nagar and the Mysore Road flyover have ensured that Vijaynagar remains a vital passage.

But the transformation from Hosahalli to Vijaynagar has not been easy. The steep appreciation in land prices and loopholes in the civic administration here has resulted in encroachments, a dime a dozen in Vijaynagar.
Here, entire parks have been encroached, as have civic amenity sites. Even roads have been encroached by telephone booth and shop owners.

The worst encroachment is on Vijaynagar park, beside the Vijaynagar Main Road. Even after the illegal vegetable and fruit shops were removed by the authorities, they have returned to haunt the place.

It is alleged that the elected representatives and the area’s civic, police and revenue authorities have been largely responsible for the mess. Even railway land has not been spared — the frustrated Railways department, after battling for years to save its property, has finally built a wall to protect the land.

Government land records will show that the encroachments in Vijaynagar are worth several crores by today’s rates. Some allege that petty politicians have encroached government land virtually on every street. Small vacant pieces of unaccounted-for BDA land between sites have all been taken.

Vijaynagar has good roads, water, power, street lighting and public gardens that have come up on pieces of land that have not yet been encroached. Garbage disposal has been a problem.

This area has consistently been crime-ridden — the active petty criminals are a natural product of the slums that surround it. Some of the city’s worst criminals live in areas adjoining Vijaynagar. The police have managed to keep crime statistics down by way of not registering crimes.

Petty shops go

Bangalore: Bangalore City Corporation officials on Wednesday removed a horde of petty shops that had encroached pavements behind the Vijaynagar bus-stand. According to officials, there was a court order to remove them, and the shop owners were asked to move out with immediate effect. The officials hoped that this would ensure smooth movement of bus commuters and pedestrians.