After makeover, vehicle ban on Commercial Street

The city’s favourite shopping hub Commercial Street will soon be a pedestrians-only stretch.

As part of the project, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will lay paver blocks along 458 metres of Commercial Street between Kamaraj Road and Jumma Masjid. Paver blocks are decorative blocks used for paving a surface.

The Rs 3.17-crore project will be taken up under the Comprehensive Development of Smart Roads according to TenderSure guidelines.

An official from BBMP said, “The tender has been approved and the work order, too, has been issued. We are just waiting for the Chief Minister’s Office to give us the date before the end of this month,” he said.

Prakash K S, executive engineer, Bengaluru Smart City Ltd said, “The work will involve only laying paver blocks instead of cobblestones. That is why the project will cost just Rs 3.7 crore. Also, work will get over in just six months as utility shifting is not involved. Once the road work is completed, it will be a completely pedestrian zone since the paver blocks cannot withstand the vehicular load.”

The work of making Commercial Street a pedestrian stretch is being taken up under one of the seven packages of Smart Roads that includes two stretches like Commercial Street — from Kamaraj Road to Jumma Masjid Road (near Bowring Hospital) and Kamaraj Road from MG Road to Commercial Street and up to St John’s Church Road at a cost of Rs 35.31 crore.

Meanwhile, the BBMP has rejected Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s Budget proposal of making Brigade Road a pedestrian stretch citing traffic havoc that it will cause on Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Richmond Road and Double Road.

Prakash K S, executive engineer, Bengaluru Smart City Ltd said, “We just plan to asphalt Brigade Road and improve the footpath. It will not be made a pedestrian road since it will cut connectivity to major arterial roads. If the government wants to make it a pedestrian road, it will be possible only during lean traffic hours.”