Partly changed, largely neglected

Gandhinagar constituency houses some of the biggest traders, banks, colleges, theatres and market places in the City. It has a mix of affluent traders and lower middle class population with cheap accommodations and fancy hotels. But most importantly it is a way in and out of Bangalore for most people.

The Kempegowda Bus Stand and the Bangalore City Railway Station are both located in the constituency resulting in dense population at any time of the day. Over the years, the population in the constituency has increased manifold, resulting in heavy pressure on the inadequate infrastructure and restricted capacity to house the increase in people.

But in the past one year things have changed. While the pace of change has been slow, it has nonetheless, brought a facelift to Gandhinagar. However, areas such as Cottonpet, Chickpet and Binnypet still face gross neglect from the civic agencies and the administration.

Infrastructure investment

Old drainage system and narrow roads have taken a toll on traders in Gandhinagar constituency. Traffic jams and overflowing of sanitary water has had a hard impact on people’s businesses. “The drainage system in Chickpet is ancient. Recently, while concreting roads, civic agencies blocked even those drains,” complained Parameshwara, a shop employee in Chickpet.

R S Naidu, of the Gandhinagar Welfare Association spoke on the need to have a better co-ordination system between civic agencies in infrastructure works. “The co-ordination is absolutely poor. We need a responsible field official who can give us immediate solutions”, he said.   

The much delayed Maharani Underpass and the Seshadri Road widening projects has solved little in easing the traffic.  People are of the opinion that if Seshadri Road could be made a two-way, most traffic congestion could ease. “But whatever may be the solution, the authorities need to be firm with it,” added Naidu.

The much contested rotary at K R Circle seems to be only an immediate concern. With the Namma Metro project set to begin at Kempegowda (Majestic) bus stand, people fear the worst is yet to come. Ask Y M A Sharma (85), and the Metro could solve nothing and on the contrary even increase the problems in the city. “What people are forgetting is that a rocky belt exists between Cubbon Park and Gandhinagar. It is quite a dangerous proposition to have the Metro pass in such terrain, that to underground,” he says.

The retired engineer believes that the alignment of the Metro can also erase half of Chickpet area resulting in chaos across the area.     
 
“Zero-Garbage” policy

In the earlier days, Gandhinagar could have been considered as one of the most polluted areas with irregular clearance of garbage and street vendors encroaching most footpath in the ward and constituency. Today, it is witnessing a change. The Zero-Garbage policy seems to have caught the eye of the city. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) policy has been openly welcomed by all sections of the society in Gandhinagar. “The policy has been quite effective with BBMP workers on the job through the day. It has been quite a achievement to transform the centre of the city,” said Naidu.

Sharma also appreciated the efforts taken by the civic agencies in clearing the area of waste. “The garbage is slowly decreasing in the area. But even people need to change their mindset in implementing the same,” he said.  

But a look at Okalipuram area and the policy seems to bite the dust. With pigs roaming on the streets, irregular garbage collection and stinking Storm Water Drains, it may induce some to have second thoughts on the cleanliness aspects of one of city’s more important constituency.

Wards

77 Dattatreya Temple
94 Gandhinagar
95 Subhash Nagar
96 Okalipuram
109 Chickpet
120 Cottonpet
121 Binnipet