Whitefield residents vow to build their own road

Whitefield residents vow to build their own road
The Times of India

Bangalore: The mascot of Silicon City, International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB) has a fundamental problem — connectivity. Where are the roads here?
A 2-km stretch at Whitefield, the Ecumenical Christian Centre-GR Factory (ECC-GR) Road, which is half-a-kilometre from ITPB boasts of high-speed e-connectivity, yes, the cellphones are connected too but there are just no roads here despite a plethora of high-rises and software firms which have set shop.
Records at the Mahadevapura CMC, under which this stretch falls, show that there have been budgetary allocations year after year, for five years now. But there is no trace of either the road or the clogged and choked drainage system.
Residents explain that the funds from here have been diverted by a former corporator to Gulta, a small hillside area in Whitefield. Engineers here acknowledge that the last time the road was done up was in 2001. Incidentally, this CMC office gained notoriety after a Lok Ayukta raid in 2002, when the sleuths caught the officials for misappropriation of funds.
On Sunday, about 250 residents, under the aegis of ECC Road Forum and Whitefield Citizens’ Initiative, staged a unique protest — they travelled by bullock carts on the 2-km stretch. Residents are so frustrated that they have come up with an ultimatum — “We have read in the papers about residents of JP Nagar restoring their ruined road themselves with support from a builder. We will also do this road ourselves. We have already spoken with a builder, if this materialises it will be a good example of public-private partnership (PPP),’’ explains Prabir B, a resident.
The citizens present this impeccable logic in a written memorandum submitted to the CMC authorities — “We have waited for a very long time. Will we now have to wait for this CMC’s amalgamation into Greater Bangalore?’’
The citizens say they called BMP administrator Dilip Rau with their woes but were told peremptorily: “This is not yet Greater Bangalore. I cannot do anything about it.’’
How serious are the CMC authorities about doing any work here at all...? Sample what an official has to proffer, “We are waiting for the Cauvery project to take off. For that the BWSSB will have to dig up the roads, so it will be a waste if we take up asphalting or road-laying. We will wait till they finish laying the underground pipes.’’
“Have they been waiting for four years for BWSSB to finish laying pipes?’’ retort citizens when informed about this “official delay’’.
This road connects two important arterial roads, the Airport-Whitefield Road as also the KR Puram-Whitefield Road both of which merge at Hope Farm. The problem of bad roads is compounded by movement of container trucks and tippers which continue plying through the night despite a board declaring — HTV Banned.
Do these people really have to wait for Greater Bangalore for a road?