Projects without consent ruled out

Projects without consent ruled out
The Hindu

New schemes awaiting Government clearance, says BMP Commissioner Jothiramalingam

# Details of flyover near Ramakrishna Ashram sent to Task Force on Traffic
# Bridges to come up in Bapujinagar, Gangondanahalli and Byappanahalli

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) will not start any new infrastructure projects without the Government's consent, BMP Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, said here on Friday.

He told presspersons on the sidelines of a function organised to inaugurate the Rajajinagar and Modi Road-Chord Road junction underpasses that most of the new projects planned by the BMP are awaiting the Government's clearance.

Reassurance

In an effort to reassure the residents of Basavanagudi, who are protesting against the BMP's plan to construct a flyover near the Ramakrishna Ashram, he said: "We have also sent the details of this project and tender guidelines to the Task Force on Traffic for a review. If the traffic police feel the necessity of a flyover in the area, we will go ahead with it. We will not take up anything on our own," he said.

Pointing out that the Ramakrishna Ashram flyover is part of the nine flyovers planned under the BMP's South Corridor Project announced in the civic body's annual budget last year, the commissioner said: "If the traffic police say the traffic volume in the area does not need a flyover, we will not take it up."

Whether the traffic police had not studied the feasibility of a flyover near Ramakrishna Ashram before the project was finalised, the commissioner said: "It was studied. But we have sent it again for a review."

Bridges

The BMP in coordination with the Indian Railways will take up several railway over-bridges and railway under-bridges in the city.

"We will construct a `cut and cover duct' on railway land in Okalipuram to straighten the new Rajajinagar underpass. This will reduce the distance and also help commuters, who now have to take a turn to reach Khodays Circle from Okalipuram," the commissioner said.

Apart from a railway under-bridge in Mathikere, the BMP will construct more such bridges in Bapujinagar, Gangondanahalli, near ITC Factory and Byappanahalli. The bridge in Swatantrapalya (in Srirampuram near Anjaneyaswamy Temple) will be widened, he said.