Development work on in Bangalore East

Development work on in Bangalore East
From two new road-over-bridges to covering open drains, the BCC has a host of projects planned in this part of the city
The Times of India

Comprising 33 wards with a total population of around 30 lakhs, Bangalore East, considered as a high profile zone of the silicon city has witnessed some major development work in the last one year.

On civic amenities in the east zone, Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore City Corporation (East) Jayaram said, "the Citizen Service Centre opened at the Public Utility Building is a big hit with the residents. This year alone the BCC has given away 30,000 birth certificates, 7,000 death certificates, and 12,000 Khata certificates on the spot and plans more such counters to meet the increasing demand. This move has brought in transparency between the public and the BCC, and has also streamlined the administration".

New wards added


Ten new wards were added to Bangalore East zone including Murugeshpalya, C V Raman Nagar, Lingarajapuram, and Hebbal among others that were earlier with CMCs and Grama Thanas. Most of these localities had many private layouts which meant that there were no civic amenities including roads and drains. Hence, a special package of Rs 50 crores was awarded to take up basic infrastructure work. gramme was drawn to lay a major drain near the Airport Road at a cost of Rs 1.5 crores that connects to the Bellandur Lake. Further, he said the Koramangala and Hebbal Valley projects are being taken up at a cost of Rs 100 crores.

Covering drains


Another major accomplishment, according to the DC, was covering of primary and secondary drains. One open drain claimed a life during the last monsoons. Apart from this, a pro-

Road works

Giving details about the road widening work from Basaveshwara Circle to Hebbal Flyover and from Mekhri Circle to Cantonment railway station, he said since the TDR regulations are in, it becomes easy to take these works up soon. Also, since the density of traffic on these two roads has increased over the years, the BCC is emphasising on taking up the road works shortly. He added that two 'Road Over Bridges', one at ITC factory in Banaswadi and another at Byappanahalli costing Rs 15 crores each will be taken up soon as tenders for these projects have already been called and selected.

On asphalting of roads in the east, he said, the road work is divided into 32 packages costing around Rs 50 crores, out of which, nine are completed and the rest will be completed before the rains start. On the public ire over road cutting and digging by Bescom, he said, "earlier Bescom had blanket permission to lay cables. Now it is stopped and permission is granted case-by-case after ensuring the agency has restored the damages".

On parking, he said the Magrath Road multistoreyed car parking-cumcommercial complex will be ready in three months. Here, 1,100 cars can be parked at a time. Since the BCC Council has scrapped the pay-andpark scheme, the civic authorities are working towards regulating orderly parking.

Public-private partnership


The BCC has tied-up with several corporates under the public-private participation schemes where medians, traffic islands, and several parks were redone that today add to the charm of the city. The BCC in its previous budget had sanctioned Rs 20 lakhs to each of the wards to take up footpath work where interlocking cobble blocks were laid and this year the work is expected to get over. Beautification of Ulsoor Lake at a cost of Rs 1.65 crores has already been tendered and works on landscaping, laying jogging tracks etc will start soon.