North Bangalore is our home, can't let others dictate agenda

A protest urging the government to decongest north Bangalore after the scrapping of the proposed steel flyover was held in front of the Esteem Mall on Sunday.

The Karnataka Abhivruddi Matthu Anustana Samiti, a group of Resident Welfare Associations in Sahakar Nagar and surrounding areas, came together to urge the government to take alternate steps to ease congestion along Bellary road.

 “Crossing the Hebbal flyover, Mekhri circle junction and Cauvery junction is a nightmarish experience throughout the day with bumper-to-bumper traffic. At peak hour, a study at Hebbal cloverleaf shows that there are 22,000 PCUs passing per hour. People living in north Bangalore are losing precious time and money and it is impacting their health,” B.M. Devarajappa, Samiti President said.

He said the government cancelled the flyover due to a high decibel campaign by people nowhere connected with north Bangalore.

Mobility expert, Sanjeev Dyammannavar, who runs Praja opined that North Bangalore has good rail connectivity and if suburban rail is started, it would help thousands of people staying in this part of the city to avoid taking the road.

He also questioned BBMP’s slow pace of work on the crucial Kodigehalli rail under bridge as a huge volume of traffic has now shifted into Sahakarnagar and passes through the railway gate at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar.

Devaraj Gowda, President of Amruth Nagar Residents Association said the government and BBMP should urgently widen the Bellary road near Palace Grounds and find a solution to decongest Hebbal flyover.

“We are still ready to plant 10,000 trees in place of the 800 that were going to be lost to the steel flyover or a concrete flyover if planned. But, nobody seems to be listening to us,” said R. Balaraj, vice president

“We urge the government to reconsider or atleast have a cheaper concrete flyover from Basaveshwara circle to Hebbal. Otherwise, we will continue pressing the government till a Metro rail line is sanctioned atleast till Yelahanka from M.G. Road on the now scrapped hi-speed rail route. This Metro route can turn into Yelahanka New Town at Allasandra flyover or continue further and terminate at Kogilu where there is plenty of government land available, a protestor, Anil Kumar said.

“North Bangalore is our home. We cannot let others dictate on the developments that we need in our area,” added A Shivarama Shetty, Samiti secretary.

A glimpse of protest, click here

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