Mystery over who built the fort inside Kempegowda Park

'Refusal by KRIDL officials' to accept they have constructed the fort prompted BBMP to serve a notice

The BBMP has slapped a notice on the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) seeking an explanation about the nature of work it carried out at Kempegowda Park.

The notice has been prompted by collapse of a section of the 25-feet fort wall at the park in northern Bengaluru last week.

A senior official in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) told DH that the refusal by KRIDL officials to accept that they have constructed the fort prompted them to serve the notice.

“We’ll send them the notice demanding detailed explanation on which are the works they took up and which ones they didn’t,” a BBMP official said.

Dasarahalli MLA R Manjunath, in whose assembly constituency the park is located, pointed out that no tender had been called for the development work in the park.

“Now records (of any tender) and now even the KRIDL has refused to have executed the project worth Rs 47 crore. It must be investigated on who executed the project and why it wasn’t documented,” he said.

Manjunath said he wrote to the chief minister and the BBMP chief commissioner demanding an inquiry. He said the fort was built without a strong foundation and a suitable column structure. “It’s hardly three years old and is already developing cracks,” he said.

As of now, BBMP officials are expecting a response from the KRIDL. “We’ll remove the portion of the wall that has collapsed. If it falls completely, the adjoining Ranga Mandira will be damaged,” a BBMP official said.

The agency has no plan to rebuild the wall again, the official added. “We need funds to build the wall while it should also be decided if the KRIDL built it or not,” he said.