Would you care to visit SJP Road?

Would you care to visit SJP Road?
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Traders of Central Bangalore have hailed Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s concern for roads and invited him to visit SJP Road in the city’s central business area so that he can see its condition for himself.

It was Chamarajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed who launched road concreting work along with area corporator Yasmin Taj on November 21, and there has been no progress ever since. The road remains in a dug-up state.

The work was allotted to Karnataka Land Army for quick completion, but till date the dug-up road at the City Market end has shown no trace of improvement, says B K Goyal, Secretary of the Federation of Trade Associations of Central Bangalore.

This has affected businesses in the area and it is not known when the traders are going to recover, complain Dhirender of Chandra Hardware and Anil Talreja of Balaji Hardware.

This website’s newspaper reporters even saw some shops shut during peak hours on Wednesday. Traders said many customers were keeping away, being unable to bear the dust, what with dug-up roads making these shops inaccessible.

The Federation of Trade Associations has been coordinating with various agencies like Bescom, BSNL and BWSSB to get them to complete their portion of the work before the concreting work begins, says Goyal.

These agencies, he adds, have already submitted their drawings and estimates to the Land Army for planning. But for reasons best known to the Land Army authorities, they are dragging their feet, though funds do not seem to be a constraint as the project has been sanctioned under a flood relief scheme.

According to traders, Land Army authorities throw up their hands saying they cannot proceed till they get permission from the city corporation.

Paras of SB Enterprises says that the traders of SJP Road are also facing serious health problems because of the dust from the dug-up road. It is causing skin allergies and asthma, he says.