TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda was all smiles as he inaugurated the Tagore Circle underpass on RV Road in front of Basavanagudi police station on Saturday. But perhaps only the CM and his officials were a happy lot. Residents were merely relieved that that the job was finally done. Many thought it was an ‘unwanted’ project which cost the exchequer Rs 26 crore.
“I am happy that the project is over. It will be of help for people in this part of the city,” the CM said.
“We are glad the work has been completed. Even in case of the National College flyover, we had the same doubts. Instead of eliminating signals, it added signals,” said B Sathyanarayana Shetty, a businessman from Chamrajpet who frequently travels in this part of the city.
"We are happy mainly because we got rid of the dust, dirt and the noise pollution that we have endured for the last three-and-half years,” said R Chandrashekar, trustee of the Achieve Education Trust.
Gururaj, a resident of Vidyapeetha felt the underpass will be of no use once the Metro service becomes operational. "We have a Metro alignment near KIMS Hospital, R V Road. This road is already empty. I don't see any value-addition vis-à-vis this underpass in easing traffic," he said.
The underpass, with service roads on each side, is expected to benefit motorists plying between Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar, Banashankari, Kumaraswamy Layout, Basavanagudi, National College and KR Market.
CHEQUERED HISTORY The project was mired in controversy right from day one. The work which was started at midnight took the residents by surprise leading to protests. Residents were also angry about the loss of greenery, thanks to chopping of road-side trees. The project was announced in 2002. However, it was only in July 2008 that the work order was issued. The work which finally began on October 25, 2009 saw a 16 month delay in completion.
26 MORE FLYOVERS FOR CITY: CM Sadananda Gowda said work on 26 flyovers, at a cost of Rs 1,527 crore, has been undertaken and eight of them have already been completed. DVS also said that work is on in 11 flyover projects and tenders have been issued for the remaining seven. He also said work on five signal-free corridors at an estimated cost of Rs 426 crore will begin and within two years all these projects will be implemented.
ON A NEW JOURNEY: The Tagore Circle underpass that was inaugurated on Saturday
No comments:
Post a Comment