Civic flop, residents flip

December 23: While the city desperately needs good infrastruture, the flip side is that citizens have been forced to sacrifice their serenity and comfort in return.
Residents of HSR Layout cannot sleep, with heavy vehicles being diverted to their locality round the clock due to the construction of two flyovers at Iblur and Agaram. They allege that traffic has been diverted in an unscientific manner increasing the noise and air pollution in their once peaceful locality. President of HSR Layout 2nd Sector Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) brigadier (retd) R.S. Murthy wants to know why the BDA and traffic police diverted highway traffic to a residential area. “The cacophony of vehicles does not let us sleep. There is no peace even at midnight. The interests of the public were ignored and our consent was not taken before the traffic was diverted,” he said. Roads in the area are also getting damaged due to the heavy traffic, he added.
Work on an underpass at Tagore Junction in Basavanagudi has ended the tranquility in that locality. “BBMP is imposing projects on people where they are not needed and diverting traffic to narrow and interior roads. In the process, the lung space of Bengaluru is being sacrificed, causing an increase in temperature,” said M. Venkatesh, a resident of Basavanagudi. There is complete chaos on interior lanes in Basavanagudi, he added. Work on Metro Rail has only added to the chaos. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has diverted traffic from the main road forcing motorists to use residential lanes.
Residents of Frazer Town are victims of a project that appears to have no end in sight. Delay in completion of the road-over-bridge here has taken a toll on the people. While vehicles have to take a longer route, dust and smoke from work on the project are affecting the health of residents of the locality, said Kamalkanth, who lives in Frazer Town.
Various residents’ welfare associations have demanded that civic agencies take up time bound projects to save people from going through hardship.