The Comprehensive Mobility Plan-2020 that recently received government approval has suggested widening of 11 roads with a total length of 192 kilometres.
The road widening, one of several proposals in the plan, envisages six-lane carriageways at a cost of Rs 19,200 crore.
Among the part of roads earmarked for widening are the Madiwala Police Station-Lalbagh Main Gate, MNK Park-NICE Corridor, Sankey Road-Hebbal Flyover and Cantonment Railway Station-Bagalur Main Road, which have dense tree cover on parts or the whole of the stretch.
The At-Grade widening also includes a 58-km stretch of the Outer Ring Road where the road width is uneven. Officials have proposed to make the corridor signal-free besides building service lanes for the full stretch, which is currently missing.
The CMP-2020 has carved up the 192-kilometre stretch into three segments aimed at increasing the carrying capacity of the roads.
In the first phase, widening work will be undertaken on a 50-kilometre stretch, followed by 70-kilometre and 72-kilometre stretches in the second and third phases. As per the document, the project will cost Rs 100 crore per km.
Officials have proposed incentives like transferrable development rights (TDR) and those derived from the upcoming Transit Oriented Development plan to help smoothen the land acquisition process.
Doubts over proposal
However, an activist who did not want to be named questioned the relevance of the data that is used as a basis for the plan.
“The post-Covid scenario has brought several changes in the city and some of the changes are still evolving, especially in the transport sector. To propose projects based on old data may take the city in the wrong direction,” he
said.
Acknowledging the huge drop in ridership in BMTC buses and metro trains, the activist, however, noted that the traffic snarls on the road have also not surged to the pre-pandemic levels.
“This is an opportunity for transport experts and urban planners to understand the evolving phenomenon. Any plan should be based on scientific data that will prove to be relevant in the post-Covid world,” he noted.
To a question, a senior official said the projects are not full and final, and that “the plan may still be changed, based on the latest developments at the time of its consideration”.