BBMP to acquire 485 properties for signal-free corridor project

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will acquire as many as 485 private and government properties for its ambitious five signal-free corridors in this City.

The Palike had sent a proposal for the acquisition of land to the Revenue department four months ago. It is expecting the necessary clearances this week. In this regard, the BBMP Commissioner, M Lakshminarayana, had a meeting with the Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, on Tuesday where he briefed him about the BBMP budget, expected financial assistance from the State government and the status of infrastructure projects, including the five signal-free corridors.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Lakshminarayana said, “We have requested the chief minister to give clearance to start these projects, which are pending before the State government for several months.”

The five signal-free corridors are coming up on Hosur Road, from Central Silk Board junction to Vellara junction, Mysore Road to Central Silk Board junction, Dr Rajkumar Road from Yeshwanthapur Circle to Okalipuram Road, Vellara Junction to NH-4 Kundalahalli-Whitefield and Mehkri Circle to Hope Farm.

These projects would cost an estimated Rs 618 crores. Already the contractor firms have been selected to execute the project and a proposal has been sent to the government for clearance.

According to BBMP sources, the total extent of the properties to be acquired is about 17 acres and 20 guntas of which maximum 154 properties will be acquired for Vellara Junction to NH-4 Kundalahalli-Whitefield.

Although the Palike’s financial health is bad, it will offer monetary compensation to the property losers instead of giving them Transferable Development Rights (TDR).
A senior Palike officer said, “We tried the TDR route to acquire land but individual property holders do not seem to be quite impressed with it. So, we are left with only option of paying monetary compensation.”

At a recent meeting, Lakshminarayana told the BBMP engineers to gear up for these infrastructure projects, which were long pending and are much needed to ease traffic congestion. He also reviewed the status of projects relating to widening of roads.


    Name of the Project    Properties     Extent
        required    in Sqft
* Hosur Road (from) Central Silk Board Junction to Vellara Junction        81    99,973
*Mysore Road to Central Silk Board Junction         137    93,594
* Dr Rajkumar Road (from) Yeshwantpur Circle to Okalipuram Rd        19    29,048
* Vellara Junction to NH-4 Kundalahalli Whitefield         154    3,73,845
* Mehkri Circle to Hope Farm        94    1,65,084


Underpass at Kadirenahalli

The signal-free corridor project will also include another infrastructure surgery near Kadirenahalli junction on the cross road that leads to Dayananda Sagar group of institutions. The Palike has planned another underpass there with an expenditure of Rs 11 crore.

Both the junctions, Kadirenahalli and the cross road,  are hardly 200 metres away. While planning to clear the traffic bottleneck at the junction, BBMP engineers did not take Sagar institutions junction into consideration. As a result, vehicles which come from Kittur Rani Chennamma junction near DG Petrol Pump and ply beneath the Kadirenahalli underpass have to abruptly stop at the Sagar institutions junction. This faulty planning has led to many accidents at the junction besides causing regular traffic jams.