10 road-widening works stay put

10 road-widening works stay put
The Times of India

Bangalore: Ten arterial roads. Ten Months. No progress.

That’s the report card on the road-widening exercise undertaken by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, BMP, on ten identified roads supposed to have been tackled on a fast-track basis. These roads — Bellary Road, Airport Road, Victoria Road, Dickenson Road, Palace Road, Hosur Road, Luskar Road, Kensington Road, Murphy Road, Ulsoor Road — were deemed needing immediate attention simply because of perennial chock-a-block traffic.

The rumbles on poor infrastructure got one final answer: road widening, where private land (citizens’ land) had to be relinquished invoking the provisions of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). If, in the initial stages, the scheme seemed to have taken off successfully — compounds were marked, required land was dotted red, firms were convinced into giving up land — it has stayed put. Roads remain narrow as ever and the traffic juggernaut has increased steadily.

Hosur Road, the first targeted for road-widening, has gained most success with TDR, say officials of Banalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP). After a briefing on what giving up portions of land for a Development Rights Certificate entails, BMP officials have given formal TDR requisition forms to 250 properties on Hosur Road, including Luskar Road. The flipside, however, is that only six have returned filled-in forms expressing interest in acquiring a TDR certificate.
The next best road in the roadwidening rigmarole, as officials concur, is the Palace Road. Of the identified 27 properties, 22 are government properties easing the process of land acquisition.

Explains a BMP official, “Road-widening is not a supersonic process, it can’t happen overnight. Many months have been spent convincing people about the necessity, there is not much resistance now. We then ran into problems of guidance value and stamp duty exemption.’’