HALLI, now a tony address

HALLI, now a tony address
Kammanahalli, which was once an agricultural tract, has today emerged as one of Bangalore’s best planned layouts. Times City explores this change
— Sonal Naroth and Smriti Kumar

Kammanahalli: The word halli evokes a picture of dusty mud roads, small houses, some bullock carts and bicycles... But not Kammanahalli, for here you are welcomed by big brands, supermarkets, coffee joints and huge apartment blocks.
Next only to Indiranagar and Koramangala, this once vast agricultural land is a posh locale of the city. With one of the best planned layouts, Kammanahalli also boasts of a cosmopolitan culture and balanced environment. “I have been living here for 16 years, and back when we bought the house, this was a very remote area with few shops and houses. The school behind my house was a guava grove,” Dechamma Thimmaiah reminisces.
No more. The Devanahalli airport has changed all that — over the past two years, Kammanahalli is growing fast. Property prices have shot through the roof. In fact, it looks like a clone of the city centre, and is well connected to most other parts of Bangalore.
Jagadeesh Shetty, owner of a restaurant here, has words of praise: “In the past two years, development has been immense. There was nothing here, now even Indiranagar is no competition.” The owner of a nearby Punjabi restaurant adds: “There is a tech park close by, because of which young professionals frequent our restaurant. Also, I find that compared to other residential areas, the roads here are really good and the layout is well-planned.”
Residents are happy with the progress. “We have been staying here for the past five years. There was hardly any development then. Today everything is available on one road,” points out Ram Mudra. “All the major joints have opened here. Two or three malls are also coming up. Everything we need is a stone’s throw away,” adds Ruchira Banerjee, a resident of five years. Her teenaged daughter is delighted with the arrival of hip food and coffee joints.
Youngsters like Jeevith Belliappa agree: “The hang-outs in Kammanahalli are better than in most other residential areas. It’s not often that we find cafes near residential areas. This makes them more accessible.”
Radhika Poovayya, who has been staying here for 15 years, is impressed with the lightning speed of development. “Connectivity has improved and everything we need is right here.” Today, there are many direct buses to major depots from here, though this was not the case a year ago.
While on one hand residents welcome the change, others recall a time when the traffic was much less and the locale had no more than a few houses and just one shop for all their daily needs. Like other posh localities which boomed, for Kammanahalli, this is just the beginning.
NEW ERA

• Kammanahalli is close to Kalyan Nagar, Banaswadi, surrounding IT belt

• Has classy restaurants, malls and a pub

• Brand outlets, pizza and coffee chains

• Residents from the tech field

• Close to Ring Road, with access to main road leading to BIA

• Accessible from Whitefield and surrounding areas

• Close to well-known Dodda Banaswadi temple