BENGALURU: Two years ago, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) envisaged that they would transform a stretch at Gandhi Bazaar to look like present-day Church Street.
Cut to the present: Traders and residents are miffed over not being consulted and will take out a protest march on Monday, on the occasion of World Heritage Day.
Members of Basavanagudi Vartha Mandali, Heritage Basavanagudi Residents Welfare Forum, Basavanagudi Merchants Forum, and Bangalore Praja Vedike plan to take out a procession from DVG Road to Tagore Circle.
“Officials have not spoken to owners of the shops and houses that will be affected by the construction and the final product of the plan. There are about 300 shops, 60 houses and more than 300 residents on the stretch they plan to work on. These people need accessibility and the plan limits that,” said Guruprasad, secretary of Heritage Basavanagudi Residents Welfare Forum.
The BBMP and DULT plan for Gandhi Bazaar, from Ramakrishna Ashram Circle to Tagore Circle, covers almost 950m and speaks of making the stretch ‘pedestrian friendly’ and ‘free of motor vehicles’.
However, citizens’ groups feel it will adversely affect their mobility, accessibility to neighbouring streets, and business operations. Residents say if vehicles are banned on the main road, traffic will be diverted through residential bylanes, causing a nuisance there. Apart from this, they fear that having guests over would be a nightmare considering they would need to park almost a kilometre from the location.
“The authorities want to top the road with cement and increase the footpath width, making an 80ft road a 20ft one. We are against both because at a time when vehicular population is only increasing, making roads narrower makes no sense and topping the roads with cement will affect the soil quality and reduce groundwater levels in the region,” M Venkatesh, president of Basavanagudi Vartakara Mandali, told TOI.
Planned by foreign firm
Venkatesh said all residents and business owners from the stretch are united in their protest against the plan, which has been chalked out by GIZ, a Germany-based company. The groups said a foreign entity’s plan has been blindly accepted by local bodies without a study of its practicality and use for citizens.
“This area is also of historic significance to Bengaluru and has a 130-year-old heritage value. This plan should not go through, it is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Venkatesh added.
The citizens’ groups are also said to have submitted their own plan to the civic body with suggestions of how the area can be transformed in a way that benefits pedestrians, vendors and shopkeepers, and allows for parking and traffic management.
