Expressway route deviates from gazette notification

Expressway route deviates from gazette notification

Sharath S. Srivatsa

KRDCL plan does not pass through many notified survey numbers

# Notification issued by the BMRDA in March notified 638 acres
# Official admits to variations in alignment


BANGALORE: As the fixing of ground alignment of the expressway to the international airport at Devanahalli is nearing completion, residents of Challakere village are crying foul over the deviations taking place from the notification issued in this regard by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA).

While the BMRDA has notified the survey numbers on which the expressway is to be laid, the alignment map of the expressway provided by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL) travels on different survey numbers.

The alignment plan has been procured from the KRDCL by K. Gopal, a resident of Challakere under the Right to Information Act. The expressway notification issued by the BMRDA on March 2 notified 638 acres of land for the project commencing from Horamavu on the Outer Ring Road.

The gazette notified 21 survey numbers covering a total of 15.2 acres in Challakere village in K.R. Puram hobli. The KRDCL map showing the expressway does not pass on many survey numbers that have been notified in the gazette, where as the map shows expressway passing on several other survey numbers that have not been notified.

Markers have been erected on survey numbers 28, 29 and 31, which has not been notified in the gazette. The actual alignment plan of the expressway project does not affect survey numbers 12, 14, 25 and 129 that were gazetted for the project, as they are away from the alignment.

The alignment plan has been done by the Consulting Engineering Services (CES) on behalf of KRDCL.

A resident of Challakere, P. Ramanujan, told The Hindu : "Gazette notification should be sacrosanct, accurate and authentic. The public faith in government documents should be restored to prevent honest citizens from being affected."

Variation possible

A KRDCL official acknowledged that there were variations between the notification and the alignment. He said: "We have used the village survey maps and there are possibilities that orientation may have varied. We cannot get the exact number or shape of the survey numbers unless the alignment is fixed on the ground."

Further, he said, alignment was based on satellite imagery and geometrics, which was now being transferred to ground by the revenue surveyors. The notification, he said, issued by the BMRDA was only to freeze development in the area.