We’re ready to rectify flaws in project: Mayor

We’re ready to rectify flaws in project: Mayor
Deccan Herald

From ‘technical’ objections to wrangles over political prestige, the Malleswaram underpass project is getting more slippery by the day.


From ‘technical’ objections to wrangles over political prestige, the Malleswaram underpass project is getting more slippery by the day.

BJP leaders have been making a beeline to the project site, again and again . On Wednesday, it is the turn of Bangalore South MP Ananthkumar. After a ‘spot inspection’, Mr Ananthkumar warns the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike against “making a prestige issue out of a project that affects the daily life of the local populace”.

He goes on to make common cause with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy who, just this Sunday, cautioned against the underpass becoming a not-so-useful project like the National College flyover.

The chief minister should set up a technical experts committee to study the user-friendliness of all the flyovers and underpasses in Bangalore, Mr Ananthkumar says and notes that the Malleswarm project should be wholly “re-assessed”.

Further, he wants the mayor to call a round-table of elected representatives and developmental NGOs and “prepare a blueprint for the City’s growth”.

All talk, no work

According to the mayor’s statement last week, the work on the underpass should have resumed on Wednesday. But at ground zero, the men who matter -- BMP Technical Adviser Jayaprasad and Chief Engineer (Projects) A M Ranganath -- find themselves explaining, and not a whole lot more, the project all over again to yet another neta.

They note that the underpass was part of a series of projects (Modi Hospital Circle underpass, Yeshwanthpur Circle flyover, etc.) that were linked to a highway corridor. A recent assessment found the traffic volume at the junction to have increased abnormally over the past three years, they say.

The Mayor’s tone and tenor, too, has changed. When contacted, she says: “Everything will be done to rectify the flaws. We’ll let it take its time, but we cannot scuttle a project just because one or two businessmen and their political bosses do not want it.”

The ‘affected’

Barring the 100-odd people who gather around during Mr Ananthkumar’s visit, there is not much astir in daily life in the project limits.

Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative chief Sumathi Rao attributes the perceived lack of interest to ‘apathy’.

“Unless we make a noise, they won’t know. Many people here did not know what it was even when the excavation began”, says she.

A crowd does gather, though -- when Kannada actress Sudharani comes out and speaks.

The entrance to her house is blocked because of the excavation. “Cannot remove my vehicle,” she says.

THE UNDERPASS UPDATE

*July 30: BMP begins work overnight

*August 1: Bangalore City in-charge minister R Ashok (BJP) cries halt to the work

*August 3: Mr Ashok calls a meeting with BMP engineers. Seeks explanation on the alleged technical flaws. Asks BMP to respond in a few days

*August 8: Former MLA and BJP leader Suresh Kumar inspects the site; suggests a bypass for traffic moving from Rajajinagar to Yeshwanthpur (via Jakkarayanakere)

*August 11: Mayor Mumtaz Begum says the required corrections do not justify a halt to work. Says work shall resume on August 16

*August 14: Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, at a review of BMP’s works, asks BMP to check the technical/scientific soundness of the project before proceeding further

*August 16: Bangalore South MP Ananthkumar inspects the site, accuses powers-that-be at the BMP of making a prestige issue of the project

*Reality bites, begets sound bytes: “I take orders from the Commissioner. Not an inch of soil shall be moved until I receive further orders,” BMP Chief Engineer (Projects) A M Ranganath says.