<p>Bengaluru: The city’s infrastructure agency has launched a Rs 200-crore project of building seven new roads along buffer zones of the storm water drains (rajakaluve) and lakes in the city. </p>.<p>The initiative is being taken up at a time when the state government has substantially reduced the buffer zone norms for lakes and storm water drains, a change that could make land acquisition even more challenging. </p>.<p>Under what it calls the Sanchara Yukta initiative, Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Ltd (B-SMILE) plans to add 67.69 km of new road length in the first phase to the city’s existing infrastructure. Overall, it has planned a network of about 228 km of new roads. </p>.<p>According to officials, the project aims to improve mobility and act as permanent physical demarcation to prevent future encroachment of drain buffer spaces.</p>.No more concrete boxes; Bengaluru embraces nature to stave off floods.<p>However, concerns have also been raised that these corridors could be vulnerable to flooding.Of the seven roads proposed in the first phase, B-SMILE has already taken up the construction work on the 6.04-km stretch between Inner Ring Road (Koramangala) to Sarjapur Road (Iblur). The Rs 42-crore project, which passes on the buffer of Bellandur Lake, will largely come up on defence land. Formalities for commencing civil works on the remaining stretches are more or less complete, officials said. </p>.<p>When the Sanchara Yukta scheme was conceptualised, the buffer zone norms were in the range of 50 metres for primary drains to 25 metres for tertiary drains, which discouraged development activities even if they were private properties. </p>.<p>In September this year, the state government, however, reduced the buffer zone width to 5 metres (for tertiary drains), 10 metres (for secondary drains) and 15 metres (for primary drains). This is likely to pose fresh challenges for the project as private land owners are unlikely to accept TDR as compensation when they can develop their property themselves, following the reduction in buffer zone. </p>.<p>Overall, B-SMILE requires acquisition of about 740 acres of land for building these seven stretches. Clement Jayakumar, member of Mahadevapura Taskforce was skeptical of the project. “Building roads in buffer zones of the lakes is sure to affect the ecosystem of the water body while a similar plan on the storm water drain will only lead to flooding,” he said, adding the effort may not decongest traffic. B-SMILE’s technical director B S Prahalladt said the land acquisition would be a challenge.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: The city’s infrastructure agency has launched a Rs 200-crore project of building seven new roads along buffer zones of the storm water drains (rajakaluve) and lakes in the city. </p>.<p>The initiative is being taken up at a time when the state government has substantially reduced the buffer zone norms for lakes and storm water drains, a change that could make land acquisition even more challenging. </p>.<p>Under what it calls the Sanchara Yukta initiative, Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Ltd (B-SMILE) plans to add 67.69 km of new road length in the first phase to the city’s existing infrastructure. Overall, it has planned a network of about 228 km of new roads. </p>.<p>According to officials, the project aims to improve mobility and act as permanent physical demarcation to prevent future encroachment of drain buffer spaces.</p>.No more concrete boxes; Bengaluru embraces nature to stave off floods.<p>However, concerns have also been raised that these corridors could be vulnerable to flooding.Of the seven roads proposed in the first phase, B-SMILE has already taken up the construction work on the 6.04-km stretch between Inner Ring Road (Koramangala) to Sarjapur Road (Iblur). The Rs 42-crore project, which passes on the buffer of Bellandur Lake, will largely come up on defence land. Formalities for commencing civil works on the remaining stretches are more or less complete, officials said. </p>.<p>When the Sanchara Yukta scheme was conceptualised, the buffer zone norms were in the range of 50 metres for primary drains to 25 metres for tertiary drains, which discouraged development activities even if they were private properties. </p>.<p>In September this year, the state government, however, reduced the buffer zone width to 5 metres (for tertiary drains), 10 metres (for secondary drains) and 15 metres (for primary drains). This is likely to pose fresh challenges for the project as private land owners are unlikely to accept TDR as compensation when they can develop their property themselves, following the reduction in buffer zone. </p>.<p>Overall, B-SMILE requires acquisition of about 740 acres of land for building these seven stretches. Clement Jayakumar, member of Mahadevapura Taskforce was skeptical of the project. “Building roads in buffer zones of the lakes is sure to affect the ecosystem of the water body while a similar plan on the storm water drain will only lead to flooding,” he said, adding the effort may not decongest traffic. B-SMILE’s technical director B S Prahalladt said the land acquisition would be a challenge.</p>