More projects, again on paper?

BCC BUDGET COUNTDOWN
More projects, again on paper?
The Times of India

Bangalore: New budget, new projects. Even if they are only paper plans.

Four new grade separators are likely to make their presence felt. May be not on the ground, but certainly in the ensuing BCC budget. Ironically, ongoing projects, facing prolonged delay, are nowhere near completion even as BCC plans new projects year after year.

While BCC is planning to propose flyovers at Yeshwantpur- Malleswaram junction (Rs 12.5 crore), at Magadi Road-Chord Road Junction and Minerva Circle (Rs 19 crore) and an underpass at Malleswaram Circle (Rs 14 crore) in its new budget, work on ongoing projects — flyover at National College Circle and underpass near Rajajinagar entrance — is limping. So much so, the initial ‘18-month deadline’ has been extended innumerable times.

Delays, debates and demonstrations — the National College flyover has seen them all. No wonder that the 400-metre long flyover has been two-and-half years in the making. Work on the flyover started in 2002 amidst controversies. The lobbying for the project was so strong that it got a political tinge midway. The latest deadline for completion was March 31, 2005 which has again been enhanced to May 2005, according to BCC engineerin-chief Ramegowda.

Same is the fate of another project. Work on the underpass at Rajajinagar entrance started in 2002. Traffic was diverted to narrow residential roads and ‘peak-hour’ lost all meaning as the stretch from the entrance to Majestic, Ananda Rao Circle was chock-a-block perennially. With 70 per cent of the work completed, the Rs 15- crore project is finally slated to see daylight by May-end.

Says contractor Parthasarathy: “Even before the project started, it hit roadblocks with land acquisition problems. Politicians had to intervene to get the land for BCC.’’

All set but nowhere to go, seems to be the case of the Ambedkar Stadium at Dasarahalli. Spread across eight acres, the first phase has a gallery, pavilion building, badminton court, skating rink, basketball court. But it is not yet open because “the corporator is waiting for the CM to inaugurate it.’’