Any intervention at the crucial Hebbal Junction on the busy International Airport Road seems to be jinxed as any construction at the junction – flyover or underpass – is in close proximity to the adjacent Hebbal Lake — a challenge that even the Hebbal flyover faced in 2002-03 when it was built.
The proposal to widen the flyover adding two additional lanes from Esteem Mall towards the city easing the bottleneck and an underpass below to make the junction on Outer Ring Road signal-free, has already run into trouble for violation of the 75-metre buffer zone of the adjoining lake. Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is now considering to make a special application before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to seek permission for the widening of the flyover and build the underpass as a special case since Hebbal is a crucial junction.
“There is no dispute with even those opposing the projects we propose that there is an urgent intervention needed to ease traffic at the Hebbal Junction and ease commute to the airport. The junction is already developed. We are contemplating making an application before the NGT seeking special permission to allow for the underpass,” P.N. Naik, engineering member, BDA, said.
Will the NGT — that recently in its judgement on the steel flyover project observed that the violation of buffer zone of Hebbal Lake was also a factor to be considered in the environmental assessment to be done for the steel flyover — permit an exception to its own May 2016 judgement that set the buffer zone around lakes at 75 m, is a question with no answer yet.
However, the proposed underpass on ORR from Nagawara towards BEL Circle, making the junction signal-free, will fall within the 30-m buffer fixed by BDA in its master plan.
Leo Saldanah of Environment Support Group told The Hindu that it was clear from the NGT order on buffer zones that no construction or development can be done within the stipulated buffer and BDA will be challenged again.
“Its to be seen what NGT will decide if BDA makes a plea before the NGT over the issue seeking an exception,” he said.
Architect Naresh Narasimhan of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), a citizens collective that fought the steel flyover project, said that BDA was repeating the same mistakes it did with the steel flyover and it needed to first put out the designs and DPR in the public domain seeking public opinion. In fact, even when Hebbal flyover was being built in 2002-03, the project encountered much opposition on account of threatening the adjacent lake. A citizens’ movement against the flyover under the banner Hebbal Lake Protection Authority (HELPA) forced a change in the project design, from the earlier design that had a few pillars within the lake.
A flyover proposed by people
With many infrastructure projects being opposed and some shot down for lack of public consultation and allegedly being imposed on the city, here is a flyover project that was proposed by the local residents that the government is now implementing.
The Ejipura – Kendriya Sadan flyover, being built at a cost of ₹204 crore, and approved by the State cabinet on Friday, was a project proposed by the residents of Koramangala in 2012, to separate traffic towards Hosur Road from the neighbourhood traffic. The civic body had proposed an integrated underpass on Sarjapura-Hosur Road, which the local residents termed a mess and later proposed an alternative flyover instead.
Nithin Sheshadri of Koramangala RWA said that the first presentation was made to then Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda in 2012 and later taken up in 2014 under JnNURM, but dropped and now funded by State government. “The project is one example of an infrastructure project that is designed completely from the ground by the affected residents,” he said.
