Residents on hunger strike for wider Varthur road

Residents and civic activists have been sitting on a hunger strike since Thursday, demanding a wider road from Dommasandra Circle to Varthur Kodi in eastern Bengaluru.

The road — whose width varies from 60 feet to 80 feet — sees a surge of vehicular traffic from Sarjapur Road. Most of the vehicles are bound for Whitefield, Kadugodi, Channasandra and Marathahalli, among other areas. Residents say the road isn't wide enough to handle such large traffic. Besides, accidents have been occurring on this road with increasing frequency. They want the road to be widened to 150 feet.

Residents also want the BBMP to hold public consultations on road design and planning, compensate or relocate land losers before the project starts and consider all environmental aspects covered in the scheme of the plan.

Jagadish Reddy, who lives in Varthur, says traffic congestion on the road has been rising by the day. "About 10 to 15 schools are located between Dommasandra Circle and Varthur Kodi, which together ply 10 to 15 school buses daily. Children are the most affected as school buses get stuck in traffic snarls during peak hours," he adds.

While Varthur and the neighbouring localities have seen development in housing and commercial sectors, the road has remained the same, he says.

Nagaraj, an activist from Varthur, said: "We have been approaching corporators and MLAs for a decade now, but there has been no solution. We will continue the hunger strike until the authorities take a serious decision and promise to start the project quickly."

Karthikswamy, another resident, feels the BBMP is delaying the road-widening project because of the tedious land acquisition and rehabilitation processes. "People giving up their land for the road-widening want the BBMP to pay them before the work starts. There is also the work of relocating people and carrying out demolitions. The BBMP may be delaying the project because of these issues," he says.

Local corporator Pushpa Manjunath said she met the protesters on Friday and has promised to arrange their meeting with Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali in a day or two. "I will urge him to take a decision soon," she added.