Tagore underpass: Crime with impunity

They get to show the world how to survive and smile in spite of a flawed democracy that finds many ways to harass them. The Tagore circle underpass (TCU) is a wonderful example of how to harass citizens with impunity.

KR Road was one of the nicest roads in Bangalore. From city market to Jayanagar, it was a beautiful stretch with old tress providing shade in summer and fresh air year round. The bureaucrats were terribly unhappy. How could such pleasant surroundings continue when they were pledged to harass all citizens round the year without fear or favour? It was simply unacceptable that people could enjoy a pleasant walk on KR Road at any time of the year. It was unacceptable to these authorities that traffic flowed smoothly from north to south and vice versa. It was evidence of humongous failure on their part.

And so remedial action began. The first step was to ensure that all beautiful trees were cut. Whether the volume of traffic justified it or not, the road was to be widened in public interest. It’s a matter of pride to the city corporation! Bangalore should not look like a pensioner’s paradise when it was growing as the back office of the world. Look at the stretch near the National high school. From a majestic highway it was reduced to poor quality road in a few years. Bangaloreans, patient and calm, took it lying down.

Cutting trees

Some even sympathised with the authorities, saying they had a difficult job to do in managing a growing city; we should not make life difficult by raising objections over the cutting of a few trees in the Garden City. To help citizens, they took up a small project — widening the road between the post office and the police station. They cut several trees. Bangalorean remained calm and composed.

After a brief respite, they moved again. This time the target was the road opposite National College. The flyover, on a west-east direction, would go right opposite the college. The college had to shift its gate. It was unacceptable that there was no chaos when so many students went to and fro. It was unacceptable that the choultries on the stretch to Lal Bagh felt no pressure of traffic. And with great ingenuity they came up with a plan for a huge flyover. The fact that residents of the area protested was taken as an example of democracy — people had a right, almost a duty to object. The authorities were above such mundane things as consultation. It was their duty to ignore such protest in their effort to make the city dirty and dusty, on par with the dustiest cities in the world.

And the flyover was built. It exceeded its cost estimates, and it took longer than planned. And Bangaloreans remained calm and composed. They took to the dust with resignation and sought ‘moksha’ elsewhere.

The authorities had some failures too. They are human, and we must understand this. They experimented with ‘magic boxes’ in some areas. On the Sankey Road, they constructed magic boxes near the Place Road junction, and near Cauvery Theatre. They constructed magic boxes on Hosur Road. They were all complete failures.

Learning from this failure, the authorities returned to KR Road, with a plan of a grade separator at Tagore Circle. Citizens exercised their democratic right to protest. They claimed it was not needed. They said there was no traffic disruption. There was plenty of parking. The authorities knew better. They went ahead in public interest.

And so we have a mess near SV Complex and Sovereign Apartments. Now, to ensure that misery is extended widely, they have dug up the road near the Basavangudi Club. The next step is to take land away from these privileged buildings. This is an opportunity to take away land and inconvenience a large number of taxpaying citizens. A special group is senior citizens and the infirm. Earlier they had problems crossing the road. Now they are spared from walking as there are no pavements. They can remain peacefully at home.

And this success will be replicated elsewhere. Perhaps in other cities of Karnataka as well. Truly the TCU is a model to be emulated!