Sankey Road widening from Thursday

Deputy Mayor tells protesting residents they are ‘not town planners'; 82 trees will be cut, say residents

Bangalore 27/06/2011 : Road widening at a strech on Sankey Road from Bhasyam Circle to 18 th cross malleswaram, give way for widening. Photo: K. Gopinathan

Despite protests by the resident welfare associations and environmentalists over widening of Sankey Road, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seems determined to go ahead with the contentious project. It is now said the work will begin on Thursday.

The residents, on Monday, met Deputy Mayor S. Harish saying, contrary to BBMP's claims that only 19 trees will be felled, 82 trees will chopped between Bhashyam Circle and Malleswaram 18th Cross Junction.

They suggested that the BBMP first complete the underpass construction at C.N.R. Rao Circle and conduct another survey before widening Sankey Road. They also pointed out that with proper traffic management, the vehicular density could be managed.

Property ‘donated'

“However, Mr. Harish rejected all our suggestions and said that we are not ‘town planners'. He claimed that the houses, where marking have been made, were encroachments. The BBMP claims that people have ‘donated' part of the land for road widening. However, no notice have been issued to them,” said one of the residents.

The residents said, the BBMP had agreed to have another round of discussions with them, though it has refused to stall the work until then.

Mr. Harish told presspersons that non-governmental organisations and resident welfare organisations should work with the BBMP, instead of opposing it.

“We have studied the traffic density on the road. The passenger car unit per hour is 3,637. The road needs to be widened.” He said protesters were not clear on what they wanted. “One group said the road should not be widened, while another said trees should not be felled. There were no constructive suggestions. They are not town planners; we have engineers to look into these important issues,” he said.

He said that with more vehicles being added to the city roads every day, the traffic density was not going to decrease.

“Contrary to their claims, only 19 trees will be felled. One of our forest officials will go around with the residents and point out the trees that will be felled,” Mr. Harish said.