Who will maintain Vittal Mallya Road?

Who will maintain Vittal Mallya Road?
Bangalore, DH News Service:
Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 12:00 [IST]

It is a stretch of road that should be the pride of an entrepreneur and duty of the city to maintain it.

And yet it remains in a dilapidated condition over the past couple of years. The Vittal Mallya Road is in an extremely bad condition as no city agency owns up responsibility. The BBMP washed its hands off the stretch.

City agencies reason that the maintenance of the Vittal Mallya Road is the duty of UB Group, that had an agreement with the Bangalore municipality 20 years ago. UB officials maintain that maintenance works could not be carried out as the proposal for revamping and beautifying the road lies with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and also due to other drainage works commencing along the stretch.

According to the BBMP, which is responsible for most maintenance works on roads in the city, the Vittal Mallya Road is not under their control anymore and hence they cannot be held responsible. “We do not interfere in the maintenance of that stretch of road. It is upto the UB Group to maintain it,” said BBMP, Additional Commissioner (East), Puttuswamy. Officials say that the BBMP and UB group had a oral agreement as the latter were moving material on heavy vehicles to build the UB towers.

The stretch houses a shopping mall catering to the uber-rich in the city apart from being the head office for the United Breweries (UB) Group. It also is a road that leads into the exclusive stretch of Lavelle Road and connects major arterial roads in the city.

BBMP states that according to the agreement signed between the municipality and the UB group, the road name was changed to Vittal Mallya Road based on the understanding that the maintenance works will be carried out by the UB Group.

UB officials told Deccan Herald that while the maintenance of the stretch is under them they are yet to receive an approval from BBMP for starting the road work. “We have already placed a Detailed Project Report (DPR) in front of the BBMP, which is yet to approve the project,” said a source. UB officials also said that with major drainage works being carried out by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) they were awaiting its completion too.

Meanwhile, the BWSSB confirmed that there was some drainage work which were being carried out along that road but in the same vein denied that it is hampering any maintenance works to be carried out on Vittal Mallya Road. “While the works are almost complete we never had any intentions of disrupting the maintenance of the road,” said BWSSB officials.