Inadequate civic amenities

Inadequate civic amenities
Poornima Nataraj

One of the largest residential areas of the City plagued by poor infrastructure


Jayaprakash Narayan Nagar or JP Nagar is one of the few areas in the City which came into existence a few decades ago. Though the area has seen some activity in civic projects, residents here feel that they do not have certain basic needs in the locality.

Happy with the past performances of the local MLA and the ex-corporator, residents however, expect their candidate for the coming Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) election to be more proactive in getting the development projects on track.

The proposed 14.5 kilometre road-widening project from Silk Board junction to Nayandahalli has seen the residents in the ward fuming. “Many a house will be demolished for the project. We would prefer roads to be built in the stilt corridor style or elevated rapid transport systems instead,” said Dr Meundi, a resident on 15th cross.

Lack of civic amenities

JP Nagar has 10 phases or extensions making it quite a large vicinity. More than 10 lakh people belonging to all sections of society live here and over seven lakh people are from the middle and lower middle class families. Resident here complain of not having a shopping complex, government hospital, public toilets, children’s playgrounds, community centres or a post office. "Though our area is one of the largest in terms of area, we do not have proper shopping complex where all government departments are located. We have to travel long distances even for a post office or to buy vegetables,” says, M R Dayanand, a resident.

With lack of civic amenities even organising functions have become a distant dream for residents. “There is no community hall and we have to hire the R V Dental college auditorium for any function. There is just one decent playground adjacent Oxford school, which again is not being efficiently used. School authorities use this playground as a parking lot during the day,” he added.

No proper conveyance

As the overpopulated JP Nagar tries to come to terms with civic issues, lack of proper public transport has also become a problem. Though JP Nagar is connected with some of the arterial roads like Hosur road, Bannerghatta road and Kanakapura road, apart from long distance BMTC Volvo buses that ply on them, many of the interior areas in the ward lack routine bus facilities. “As there is no proper market for our daily needs, we travel to Madiwala, Gandhi Bazaar and Banashankari for buying our daily requirements. Even to travel, we do not have proper bus service and autorickshaw drivers charge us exorbitant fare for short distances,” says Nirmala Ramesh, JP Nagar 2nd phase resident.

Underpass mess

The work on JP Nagar underpass scheduled to be completed in March 2009 still persists. Residents have to brave the mess created by BBMP.

With real estate prices dropping, residents are under distress with the prolonged construction work and accumulation of dust around their houses.

“It is not just the delayed construction of underpass, a portion of our house will also be razed for road-widening. We are fed up with the whole construction itself,” said Dr Meundi, a resident.