Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has, on Thursday, pulled down a portion of Bangalore Turf Club’s compound wall facing Race Course Road, to convert it into a six lane road.

BBMP has taken a Rs 5 crore project to widen the busy and congested Race Course road -- between Anand Rao Circle and Basaveshwara Circle -- by 30 meters. The present width of the road is just between 7 and 12 meters. Due to the narrow road, traffic snarls are common during morning and evening peak hours. The project, once completed, will ensure smooth flow of traffic on this route.

A total of 6,486 sq meters of land is required for the widening project, including 12 private properties and seven public properties (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, R C College, Khanija Bhavan, and BTC). Though the land acquisition process went on smoothly initially, BTC refused to part with the land. It was the reason for delay in implementing the project, which was scheduled to be completed in August 2007, a BBMP release said.

“Despite BTC officials conducting spot inspection along with BBMP officials, they did not fix the date for handing over the land. BTC is holding the land on lease from Public Works Department of the State government,” BBMP stated.

After several weeks of high-level talks, BTC, at last, agreed to give away the land. As a result, BBMP on Thursday razed 250 meters of BTC’s compound wall and resumed its work. BBMP had taken precautionary measures to ensure that no damage is caused to BTC’s properties.

BTC office bearers were also present when the compound wall was demolished.

 “We need to pull down a total of 650 meters of BTC’s wall for the project. But we stopped at 250 meters on BTC’s request. BTC has agreed to demolish the remaining portion of the wall on its own so that no damage is caused to its properties,” BBMP Chief Engineer (Major roads) Krishna Reddy said.

BBMP has already begun the widening project between BTC entrance and Basaveshwara Circle stretch. “The entire project will be completed within six months,” he added.

The BBMP, which had a target of widening eight roads this year, would soon start work on Palace Road, Sheshadri Road and Kasturba Road. Tenders had been called for widening Bellary Road, Hosur Road, Hosur-Laskar Road and Nrupathunga Road.