City central area to have wider roads soon

City central area to have wider roads soon
Friday May 11 2007 10:43 IST

BANGALORE: Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has finally started widening the roads in the central parts of the city. The project was in waiting for last two years. On Wednesday, Palike commenced work on widening Racecourse Road, and on Sheshadri Road, the next day.

Palike superitending engineer M Rangaraju told this website's newspaper that in the next four months important roads around Vidhana Soudha would be widened to have a total width of 30 metres. In the first phase, Race Course Road, Sheshadri Road, Palace Road and Kasturba Road will be taken up.

He said it was easier to take up work on these roads as there was not much land acquisition involved. ‘‘Most of the property involved in this stretch belong to government and it has already been pledged to the project,’’ he said.

Rangaraju said that the only major private property in this route was Taj West End, and the owners of the hotel, too have agreed to give up plot under Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).

The land on which Bharativaya Vidya Bhavan is built is owned by Palike while Khanija Bhavan and BWSSB reservoir are on government land. Rangaraju said that Bangalore Turf Club also had accepted Palike proposal to get the land for widening. The work has been entrusted to Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited. It is estimated to cost Rs 12.5 crore. The road would be widened from Chalukya Circle to Ananda Rao circle.

In fact, the project is delayed due to lack of popular trust in TDRs. TDR is used by Palike to acquire private land without giving any monetary compensation. Under the scheme, the owner of property is allowed to use 150 per cent area that he surrenders to BBMP in upper floors in the same building or as additional built-up area in any other building.

Rangaraju said that in the second phase another three roads would be taken up. These include Bellary Road, Hosur-Lushkar Road and Nrupathunga Road.