Legal hurdles for widening Palace, Ballari Roads cleared

BELAGAVI/ BENGALURU: Legal hurdles, which had stalled widening of Ballari Road and Palace Road have been cleared with the state government issuing transfer of development rights (TDR) on Bengaluru Palace Grounds to the Mysuru Royal family, Bengaluru development minister KJ George informed the legislative council on Thursday.
Pointing out that the road was a major bottleneck for commuters, particularly those travelling to and from the airport, George said, “We decided to acquire land for the project by giving TDR in 2010.However, one of the owners, Chandrashekar Raju refused to accept the TDR, and the land acquisition process came to a halt as a result. But, in the wake of the High Court and Supreme Court’s recent rulings, we directed the department of personnel and administrative reforms to allow BBMP to acquire the land by giving TDR.”
The government reportedly sought legal opinion on giving TDR to the royal family, since such an action would amount to an acknowledgement of the family as the owners of the property. “A compound wall lines about 1.6km of the 2.8km stretch of the road that we are looking to widen. There is little space between the main road and the wall,” George added.
The government will acquire 38,400sqm of land to widen the road – one stretch from Mehkri Circle to BDA Junction, and the other from Mehkri Circle to Jayamahal Junction.
‘For the BBMP, widening roads means felling trees’
The proposal to widen Ballari Road, and Jayamahal Road is not new. But, Justice Shailendra had, in 2010, opposed felling of trees that are on the medians of the road, as far as I can remember. For the BBMP, widening roads means chopping trees. Why can’t we leave the trees on the middle of the road alone? It is okay for the government to have concrete trees (flyover pillars) in the middle of the road. Has the BBMP tree committee cleared felling of trees for widening the roads? If so, where is the report? About 300 trees are common to three projects planned by the government – the steel flyover, widening of Jayamahal and Palace Roads, and the elevated road network.
- Naresh Narasimhan | Architect and member of Citizens for Bengaluru.