Court case over Palace Grounds saves 100 trees along Jayamahal Road

The ongoing litigation over the ownership of Palace Grounds has done something good for the tree-lined Jayamahal Road in northern Bengaluru.

As the widening of the busy street has been held up due to the litigation, the BBMP has decided to limit the project to redeveloping the existing road, thereby saving more than 100 trees.

Last year, the BBMP’s forest wing received a request for felling trees to widen the 2.65-km Jayamahal Road from Mehkri Circle to the underbridge near Bengaluru Cantonment railway station.

Authorities had identified 122 trees for axing and more than 200 trees for transplantation so that the carriageway could be widened to 45 metres to accommodate three lanes on each side.

“As the land acquisition has been delayed due to the legal tussle in the Supreme Court, we have decided to put off the widening project for a while. Instead, the existing road will be developed along with the space on the right-hand (eastern) side where better footpaths are planned,” a senior official in the BBMP said.

The project was stuck after the state government claimed ownership of Palace Grounds. Accepting the erstwhile royal family’s claim to the land would mean giving them transferable development rights worth Rs 1,400 crore, the government reasoned.

Authorities will also decide on developing Ballari Road (from Mehkri Circle and BDA Junction), which would affect another 150 trees, most of them on the median and the footpath adjoining the Palace Grounds.

Tenders for the two road-widening projects were called in 2019 and the cost was estimated at Rs 52.34 crore. “Without widening, the projects will now cost much less. We will decide how best to modify the two works by eliminating the need for road-widening. The work on Jayamahal Road will not affect any trees,” an official added.