The sprawling Jayanagar residential layout, formed by the erstwhile City Improvement Trust Board, has just crossed the golden anniversary of its formation and, in the rapidly expanding city of Bangalore, it stands out as one of the best residential layouts to this day.
Residents here do not really face any major civic problem and the credit for this happy situation should go to the great foresight of the city planners. The layout, with around a lakh houses, used to be described as a suburb. Today, located about five kilometres from the Vidhana Soudha, it forms part of the city’s core area. A drive to Jayanagar from the central parts of Bangalore takes nearly 30 minutes.
The vast Jayanagar Legislative Assembly constituency is spread out through most parts of Jayanagar - barring the first two blocks - and includes all the six phases of the adjoining J.P. Nagar (Jayaprakash Nagar) and four other residential pockets - Byrasandra, LIC Colony, Gurappanapalya and Sarakki.
Few slums
Compared to all the 27 other Legislative Assembly constituencies in Bangalore, this one has the least number of slums, 11 in all, each with a population of around 1,000 people. Even these slums came into existence only when houses were being constructed over 40 years ago when the workers chose to stay back.
There are seven Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) wards in the constituency —Pattabhiramanagar, Byrasandra, Jayanagar East, Gurappanapalya, J.P. Nagar, Sarakki and Shakambirinagar. The Jayanagar East ward is the only reserved ward earmarked for the Scheduled Castes.
The people of Jayanagar now suffer the construction of the Metro Rail which passes through R.V. Road and the Fourth Main Road Jayanagar (the double road adjoining the Lakshman Rau Boulevard). While tree lovers agonise over fully mature trees being hacked for the project, motorists have to endure the slow traffic or take alternative routes which are already congested. According to reports, the BMRCL has so far felled nearly 80 trees. As compensation, it has enabled the planting of around 450 saplings on several main roads of Jayanagar.
Another major bother for the residents is acute paucity of parking facilities in the commercial areas.
The problem has been compounded with the implementation of the Bangalore Development Authority’s master plan which permits the conversion of residential sites to commercial development, resulting in gracious old houses giving way to commercial high-rises which do not earmark space for vehicle parking.
