TIMES CIVIC — 12 J P NAGAR
JP Nagar falling prey to commercialisation
The Times of India

Bangalore: JP Nagar is always in the news. Mainly so during rains — its “infamous’’ drains known for devouring people or its areas which are inundated during the downpour.

Billed as the fastest growing area which is housing IT and BPO firms and has also a sizeable number of residential complexes, JP Nagar is one of the most opted residential areas in the city. But there is no dearth of civic problems here.
Alarmingly falling prey to commercialisation, JP Nagar is racing up the chart in terms of building deviations and violation of zonal regulations. According to the survey conducted by the civic authorities, the area has a large number of violations of land use, which is putting burden on the existing infrastructure. Every other residential bylane has rows of vehicles parked on either side of the road due to lack of parking space.

“Huge complexes and shops have sprung up in residential areas. This, obviously has the involvement of the BMP officials who are allowing the construction. As a result, there is perennial problem of parking. The vehicular density has increased so much that eternal honking of vehicles is disturbing the ambience,’’ complained Diwakar Babu, a resident.
The roads here, though were tarred, are dug up often without a good restoration work. “The road will be given a fresh look with a coat of asphalt and even before our joy lasts, it would have been dug up. The restoration work is equally shoddy. Why don’t the authorities have a policy on road digging and restoration,’’ asked Nalini Rishikesh, a resident of LIC Colony.

The storm water drains open up with the slightest rain. The drain water passing through the ward rushes back when it reaches the CMC limit due to the narrow width of the drain. As a result, roads and homes are inundated.

The classic example of the collapse of system in the area was Puttenahalli flooding. For over a week, Puttenahalli was under four feet of water during rains due to flooding. Thanks to lack of drainage facilities, there was no outlet for excess water which was flowing into the area from the adjacent Puttenahalli Lake.

The area comprises Sarakki Agrahara, Sarakki, Marenahalli, Weavers Colony, Shakambarinagar, Aryanagar, SBI Colony, Chengam Raju Layout, Ramakrishnanagar, Manjunathanagar.

The on-going construction of the flyover near Jayadeva Hospital has also shifted the traffic load on to the inner residential streets; residents who were used to only light vehicles travelling in their bylanes now have to contend with buses and tempos negotiating the narrow curves.

PROBLEMS GALORE

•Choked drainage and manholes.

•Increase in vehicle traffic due to rapid commercialisation.

•Violation of land use and zonal regulation.

•Road digging and shoddy restoration.

This is JP Nagar V Phase. This has been the condition of the road here for many months.


MLASPEAK: R ASHOK
Not a major problematic area.We are taking up asphalting of the entire ward at a cost of Rs 4 crore. Drains are being constructed in the areas bordering CMC. Flood-affected areas are also being prioritised. There are problems of commercialisation, but we cannot stop it as in most cases aged persons would have converted one portion of their homes into shops to earn some extra money. We cannot go hard on them.