Water problem continues to affect people here

Water problem continues to affect people here City ballot Problems

B.S. Satish Kumar
There is lack of last-mile connectivity in terms of transport


Perennial problem: The railway line that intersects most of the areas in the Byatarayanapura Assembly constituency causes traffic snarls during peak hours as there are no road over bridges.
BANGALORE: Byatarayanapura Assembly constituency comprises seven wards — Byatarayanapura, Jakkur, Kodigehalli, Vidyaranyapura, Thanisandra, Dodda Bommasandra and Kuvempunagar.

A common feature of these newly created wards is that till recently they were under the jurisdiction of municipal bodies unlike other wards in the central areas of the city which were administered by the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

Lack of infrastructure and civic amenities have been the bane of these areas as the municipal bodies that were governing them suffered from paucity of funds to take up development projects on a massive scale.

Work on roads and drains commenced in most of these areas after they were included in the BBMP limits, but drinking water problem continues to persist though pipes have been laid to supply Cauvery water in some areas.

Water for most of these areas is supplied from borewells either twice or thrice a week. But the groundwater table is going down and it is becoming difficult to take care of water supply through borewells alone as these areas have seen rapid increase in the number of houses of late.

The problem assumes a crisis proportion during summer when people have to depend on private water supply tankers by paying hefty amount. In fact, mineral water sellers and companies manufacturing water purifiers are making a brisk business in these areas which lack supply of clean drinking water. Another major problem haunting these areas is the lack of last-mile connectivity in terms of transport. Connectivity is not a problem only till the outer ring road and the international airport road which pass near the areas that provide an approach to these localities. The problem starts from thereon. Though there are some buses which connect these localities, their frequency is too low. One has to depend on autorickshaws for reaching destinations located at a distance of two to five km from these roads.

Unfortunately, the autorickshaws operating in these areas do not go by the meter and collect exorbitant fares, particularly during nights. The development of infrastructure in different areas is not uniform in this Assembly segment which has become a hot destination for real estate developers.

There are some extremely well-planned layouts as well as revenue pockets which are haphazard and have narrow access roads that are congested owing to increase in traffic.

The railway line which intersects most of these areas is causing traffic snarls during peak hours as there are no road over bridges (RoB). Though a RoB has been sanctioned on the busy Kodigehally main road near Virupakshipura, it is yet to be implemented.