BBMP road rage scares apartment owners

BBMP road rage scares apartment owners
G Manjusainath, Bangalore, August 2, DHNS:

The declaration made by Bangalore In-charge Minister R Ashoka and Mayor S K Nataraj about putting on hold the road widening work has not become a reality on the ground, at least for the residents of Prestige Monte Carlo at Yelahanka.

The BBMP has given jitters to the apartment owners by issuing a notice to the Prestige Monte Carlo Owners’ Association (PMCOA) informing them that a long patch of their land with a width ranging between 15-foot and 18-foot will be acquired. The Palike is dangling the carrot, Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to persuade the PMCOA to part with their land, but the apartment owners are not impressed.

Located on a corner plot that faces the Doddaballapur main road and a road to Ananthapur village on its left, Monte Carlo is facing an imminent threat of losing all its utilities including two underground water storage tanks, underground water storage tanks for fire fighting, a sewage water treatment plant and an ancient well, which is believed to date back to some 100 years to road widening.

Amit Banerji, an office-bearer of the PMCOA says the Prestige builders left nine metres of set back as per the fire fighting norms so that fire tenders could easily run inside in the event of any untoward incident.

“The BBMP is demanding us to give them the land meant for set back. Our another worry is that the basement wall of the building will also get affected, leading to the collapse of the entire structure,” said Banerjee.

Surprisingly, the planning agency of the City, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), could not foresee any road widening project extending up to Ananthapur and did not pressurise the builders to leave extra space. Like the residents of many other BDA-developed layouts, the apartment owners of Prestige Monte Carlo are now paying for BDA’s lack of foresight. The residents are not ready to give in easily and have decided to fight out against BBMP’s move. “We will knock the doors of judiciary to protect our property. We will go to every possible extent to fight the case in a legitimate way,” said Venkateswaran Anand, another resident of the multi-storeyed apartment.