Bannerghatta Road to be made 150 feet wide

June 4, 2015, Bangalore

The state government rejected the BBMP proposal for restricting the road width to 120 feet citing the Metro 2nd phase project starting anytime.
The state government has decided to increase the width of Bannerghatta Road to 45 metres (147.6 feet), overriding Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) decision to widen it to just 35 metres (114.8 feet).
But this has proved to be a double-edged sword: While it is bound to cheer motorists struggling to cope up with traffic snarls with the present 22-28-metre width (up to just 92 feet, but narrower at some points), it would prove to be a nightmare for property owners who are likely to lose portions of their land/properties in the road widening process.
The road is dotted by tech companies, super-speciality hospitals and educational institutions.
The state government's decision is a major setback for 405 private property owners who would lose partial or full portions of their properties during the execution of the road widening project.
The state government declined the proposal of sticking to a 120 feet road as proposed by the then Mayor B S Satyanarayana. The elected body had proposed restricting the road width to 120 feet as against 150 feet.
The letter addressed by N Gopalaiah, undersecretary, urban development department, dated May 8, 2015, declined BBMP commissioner's proposal dated January 5, 2015 of restricting the road widening to 120 feet.
Gopalaiah said: "We have examined requests sent by the BBMP. It is also learnt that the second phase of Metro project would also be taken up from Jedi Mara Junction to Chicken Farm on NICE Road on Bannerghatta Road. The said road is proposed to be widened for 45 metres and reducing it to 36.60 metres would be violation of Revised Master Plan 2015. Hence it is recommended to take up the road widening for 45 metres."
According to the plans, the BBMP had proposed to widen the 7.5-km stretch between Jedi Mara and Chicken Farm on NICE Road to 45 metres. The road now has a width ranging between 22 and 28 metres at various points. The private properties that would be acquired include 272 buildings, 122 vacant sites and 11 temples.
The BBMP will acquire the properties through TDR (Transfer of Development Rights).
The detailed project report is ready and funds have been allocated for the widening in the budget.
The reason for delay is that the people are not coming forward to adopt TDR. K T Nagaraj, in-charge chief engineer (Major Road Infrastructure), told Bangalore mirror, "We are ready to take up the road widening work but the officials concerned need to acquire the properties and hand it over to us. The Bommanahalli zonal office needs to acquire the required property for the road widening. Once the process is completed we will take up the project. The widening will cost around Rs 150 crore."
Some of the properties that will be acquired partially for the road widening include Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore (IIM-B), Fortis Hospital and Apollo Hospital. Assistant engineer Devraj (TDR) said the notices have already served to the property owners. "Recently the town planning department also reviewed the situation. Till now no property owner has come forward to obtain the TDR but we are trying to convince them to make use of it. The locals are demanding increasing the floor area ratio on TDR from existing 1.5 to 2.5 levels."