Six-lane ways in central area of City soon

Six-lane ways in central area of City soon

City Police Commissioner S Mariswamy said the roads will be widened before the South Block of Vidhana Soudha becomes operational.

Deccan Herald

The roads around Vidhana Soudha in the City will soon be widened and converted into six-lane ways.

Dropping hints about the proposal while interacting with mediapersons on Wednesday, Bangalore City Police Commissioner S Mariswamy said the move was geared at further decongesting the City’s central area, which is witnessing a rapid increase in the volume of traffic.

Some of the roads that will be widened include Palace Road, Seshadri Road and Dr Ambedkar Veedhi. The work on these roads will be completed before the south block of Vidhana Soudha becomes operational, he said.

These apart, several other roads in the City will also be widened under the 940 km road improvement project undertaken by the Government, Mr Mariswamy said.

When questioned as to how the land would be acquired for carrying out road widening works, Mr Mariswamy said, “With regard to roads around Vidhana Soudha, most of the land is owned by the State Government. Acquiring some land from the government departments will not be a problem.”

But with regard to the land owned by private parties, he said the government would soon issue an order allowing acquisition by relaxing some norms on construction for the land owner. That is, if the government acquires a portion of the land belonging to a private party, the latter can construct vertically on the remaining portion even if it bypasses building by-laws.

“This was how the roads in Hyderabad were widened by the previous government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh,” Mr Mariswamy pointed out
Referring to the conversion of roads into one-ways, Mr Mariswamy defended his department’s action stating that it was a necessity as the roads were operating above saturation level.

“We are not doing it according to our whims,” he said and explained, “the roads in the City can accommodate only 7 lakh vehicles, but there are about 21 lakh vehicles.”

Mr Mariswamy differed on the argument that one-ways increased distances and fuel consumption and said, “With the vehicle population increasing and the size of the roads remaining the same, we have no other option than to convert busy roads into one-ways. We cannot manage a metropolitan City with a rural mindset.”

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East) M A Saleem said a total of 74 roads in the City have been converted into oneways in the last 18 months. The details about the one-ways will soon be posted on the officials police website — www.bcp.gov.in.

Additional Commissioner of Police Kishore Chandra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic - West) and Basavaraj Malagatti and others were present.