Ballari Road widening: HC asks BBMP to avoid delays

The high court on Friday asked the BBMP to speed up the Ballari Road widening project and avoid delays from officers or the executing agency.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale gave this direction after reviewing the progress report of the works at the Cauvery Theatre junction to Mehkri Circle and Jayamahal Road.

The court is hearing a PIL filed by Samarpana, a Bengaluru-based socio-cultural trust, over delay in road-widening work. The trust claimed that no action was taken to widen Jayamahal Road from Mehkri Circle to Cantonment Railway Station and Ballari Road from Mehkri Circle to BDA junction, despite a Supreme Court direction.

During the hearing, an affidavit by H S Priyadarshini, executive engineer, BBMP, Road Infrastructure (East), was submitted to the court, and it stated that the road-widening work was underway and would be completed in phases.

At least 53 trees had already been removed and two were relocated with permission from the Deputy Conservator of Forest.

The engineer also mentioned that due to heavy traffic on the roads, there may be some delays in the completion of the project.

“Though at present it can safely be said that the work is under progress and necessary steps are being taken, at the same time, one cannot lose sight of the fact that only on account of heavy traffic on the road, the respondent authority (BBMP) cannot be permitted to cause an inordinate delay in the road-widening work,” the bench said.

The bench noted that the BBMP’s senior officers are expected to ensure that the road-widening work is not delayed for any unjustifiable reasons or excuses.

“The respondent authority (BBMP) certainly can explore various ways and means so as to see that the road-widening work gains an appropriate pace and speed and is not delayed over some excuse or some lethargy, either at the hands of some officers or the executing agency,” the bench said.

The court has given four weeks to submit an updated progress report, and emphasised that the report should show that the ongoing work is regularly supervised and checked.