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Journalism of Courage
On hundreds of walls lining Bangalores streets,little red arrows point inward,staking claim to a piece of all that is beyond shops,offices,schools,temples,churches,mosques,hospitals and homes. At least 216 roads have been earmarked for widening to ease traffic,but with citizens organising themselves against the drive and refusing to settle for Transferrable Development Rights (TDRs) in return for giving up a part of their homes,the writing on the wall is far from clear.
Initiated in 2005 to decongest 85 roads,the road-widening drive has been steadily scaled up to encompass over 200 roads. With the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)s roads division upping the ante over the past year and a half,resident welfare associations across the city have mounted an attack on the unscientific exercise,eliciting doublespeak from the administration.
Earlier this month,Mayor S K Nataraj declared that widening work had been halted in residential zones and core areas and a fresh,scientific survey would be conducted. State Transport Minister and in-charge of Bangalore South R Ashok seconded his statement,telling residents to feel free to obliterate the wall markings. But soon Minister for IT and Biotechnology Katta Subramanya Naidu,who is also in charge of Bangalore North,cut in: There is no option… road widening is a must,whether one likes it or not.
Bangalore seems to be speaking out in one voice against wider roads at the cost of displacement,heritage and green cover. Residents allege a politician-contractor nexus is pushing for widening roads against peoples wishes and principles of engineering. Says V N Rajashekar,joint convenor of Save Bangalore Committee,which staged a dharna on August 10 against road widening and lack of clarity on governments part,The government says 40,000 residential properties will be affected,but our studies show it is over a lakh. Eight to 10 lakh people now await the governments decision on whether the project will continue.
The BBMP,he says,earlier misled people into thinking they had to compulsorily avail TDR permissions adding extra built-up area which can also be traded in the market,since the government would otherwise have to acquire property at market rates under the Land Acquisition Act. Why should they give up their land in return for TDR,a market for which hasnt been developed,and go elsewhere? he asks.
BBMP Commissioner H Siddaiah told The Indian Express that in several areas the TDR scheme has been successful. There is resistance in other areas,of course,and Id like to support the Mayor and the ministers who have said that roads in the core areas where there is a lot of opposition will be reconsidered and citizens will be consulted. In the areas that have been newly added to Bangalore,where the number of properties to be acquired is minimal,we dont see a problem and work is on.
BBMP Chief Engineer,Main Roads,Chikkarayappa said of the 91 roads in core areas,17 are either in the process of being widened such as Banaswadi Road,Hennur Road,Kasturba Road and Mysore Road or have already been widened,while the rest are to be resurveyed.
Roads in areas that arent listed as core remain under the widening scanner. Which includes Whitefield,an idyllic 19th-century Anglo-Indian enclave-turned-tech hub where residents were served notices in May 2010 to make way for a signal-free corridor from Junction to Hope Farm,along Old Airport Road. Among properties on the Whitefield-Varthur road that stand to lose land is the Whitefield Memorial Church,consecrated in 1886. A year short of acquiring heritage status,the mud-and-brick church will lose its altar and sanctum sanctorum should the BBMP decide to claim the 22.5 metres it needs to widen the road.
The road has been widened six times in 10 years. It was just this April that a pavement was added. If the BBMP claims 20 ft on each side of the road,Whitefield as we know it will cease to exist. There are dozens of bungalows on the road dating back by half a century or more,which will all be gone, says Deepa Peck,a resident of Whitefield. Her husbands family was among the original settlers of the area in the 1870s; she stands to lose 250 sq m of her house.
A few roads could use some extra width,says Vivek Menon,the architect behind the newly remodelled Vittal Mallya Road. But there is no substantiation of the need to widen 216 roads. Seventy to 80 per cent of the corridors proposed by BBMP are unnecessary. By clearing footpaths of encroachments and parked vehicles and defining lane boundaries,30 per cent of the roads can be reclaimed, he said.
