Bangalore road widening will displace 3 lakh
The widening of 270 roads in the City would lead to the displacement of about three lakh people, the biggest urban displacement ever in Independent India, Manjunath of Save Bangalore, an organisation fighting road widening, said here on Saturday.
He was participating in a discussion organised by the people who would lose their properties due to the proposed road widening work at Kathriguppe and Vidyapeetha by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The BBMP plans to widen the existing 40-feet Mount Joy Road to 100 feet in order to do away with the traffic bottleneck. An underpass is part of theplan. But the road widening work on this stretch is likely to displace at least 700 to 800 families who are holding protest meetings.
Manjunath said Save Bangalore is working to bring the affected people on a single platform and fight against any move to displace people. He said money and muscle power have started dominating the City killing its cultural identity. He asked people to unite and resist against any project. He told people that no political parties would help them and they have
to take to streets against any attempt to acquire their properties for road widening.
He said the roads are proposed to be widened because of vehicle parking on the roads. Had the commercial establishments used basements for parking of vehicles, there was no need for widening roads.
During an interaction session, a participant suggested that the government should focus on developing industrial and other sectors in other parts of the City to resolve the crisis the city is facing today.
A resolution was passed that no one would give properties under TDR and people would resist any road widening project across Bangalore.
