Expressway runs into turbulence

Expressway runs into turbulence
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: What should have been hi-speed connectivity to the Devanahalli International Airport — a six-lane access-controlled expressway where vehicles could zip by at 180 kmph — has not even moved an inch.
While BMRDA, the project implementing body, set a deadline of December 2007 and revised it to December 2008, the authorities have not even issued a preliminary notification for land acquisition. This, despite the fact that the airport will be commissioned by April next year. The revised deadline for the expressway too seems to be ambitious, given that the alignment itself has run into rough weather.
“The KRDCL has been entrusted with the work of freezing the alignment and marking it. We will soon issue a notification on this,’’ BMRDA officials said. The issue has also sparked off a controversy. The residents, who would have lost their property to the project, have been alleging that there is a change in alignment. In fact, the alignment has been changed five times now and the residents complain that the latest alignment has been done to suit the needs of some rich and influential persons so that they could save their properties from being acquired.
Residents of Bagalur, Bhairathi, Chikka Gubbi, Dodda Gubbi among many others, private layouts and farmers have formed organisations and are protesting against the change in alignment. They have not allowed officials to lay the marker stones. Going by the slow pace, even the December 2008 deadline seems rather optimistic. The project has a long way to go considering land acquisition, compensation and possible litigation.