BENGALURU: In a bid to put an end to chaos on Church Street, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is all set to redesign the city’s posh landmark. Funded by the 13th Finance Commission, the BBMP will now take up road and footpath improvement works on the busy central business district (CBD) road.
According to administrator T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, the road will be repaired on the lines of TenderSURE project, but will not involve shifting of utilities. “The biggest concern in TenderSURE is shifting of utilities. The conditions of Church Street will only be improved by designing the road for both pedestrians and vehicle users,” he said.
Tenders
Bhaskar added that soon tenders will be floated for the same and will be finalized in the next two months. Church Street will be redesigned by well-known architect Naresh Narasimhan, who has taken up a study to ascertain what the CBD needs.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Narasimhan said, “The Church Street is a big mess as of now. I hope to bring a good balance for people and vehicles. Since the study is in a very initial stage, we don’t exactly know what needs to be adopted while designing the road.
Challenges
“However, there a lot of challenges in designing the road as there are numerous old pipelines that have to be accommodated or relocated. On completion of the study, we will have a better idea.”
Mr. Narasimhan said that the road will be connected to the other TenderSURE roads and will be highly useful for pedestrians. It may be recalled that frustrated with the delay in TenderSURE works, owners of popular pub Pecos on Church Street had put up a signboard demanding the civic authorities to complete the works at the earliest. It read: ‘For God’s Sake Finish the Work and End our Misery’.
Although Church Street is synonymous for upscale restaurants, bad infrastructure like lack of footpath and open drains have plagued the road from years. It is now to be seen if the improvement works will make any difference to the busy place.
