12-km stretch of Ring Road to be widened to build mutation corridor

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has embarked upon a project to widen a 12-km stretch of the Ring Road, from Unani Hospital on Magadi Road to Mysore Road junction at Kengeri, to facilitate building a 150-ft mutation corridor to link the two State highways. The BBMP will issue notifications to purchase land for the project soon. Residents and shop-owners on Ring Road, who have been caught unawares by the markings made on their building walls, are now under the imminent threat of being thrown out of their property. The former president of the then Rajarajeswari Nagar City Municipal Council, Hanumantharayappa, alleges that the decision to convert the 80-ft road into a mutation corridor was taken after the Bangalore Development Authority issued the notification for widening 512 km of roads in the city in 2007.

According to a senior official of the BBMP — the licensing authority for acquiring properties — those who stand to lose residential sites/buildings will be issued Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) which gives the person saleable rights to property or property development in other parts of the city. If the TDR, which is voluntary does not work, the official said that the BBMP would pay guidance value and acquire the property.

At present, a mutation corridor (Outer Ring Road) is under construction between Nayandahalli on Mysore Road up to Tumkur Road via Sumanahalli junction on Magadi Road.

However, N. Muninanjappa Reddy, president of the Kengeri Residents’ Welfare Association, said that there were four parallel roads within a distance of one-and half-km linking the highways. With the completion of the corridor, which passes through Sumanahalli and links to Nayandahalli on Mysore Road, in a few months there would hardly be any vehicular traffic on the other mutation corridor.

The former president of the Kengeri Town Municipal Council A. Manjunath said that people had built complexes and houses on hundreds of sites auctioned by the BDA. In fact, the site owners were waiting for the completion of construction of the existing 80-ft Ring Road along with pucca stormwater drains, he added.