No studies have been carried out on the impact of Sankey Bund Road widening. Experts caution that the mud bund could collapse, threatening lives of residents of Vyalikaval.
The brouhaha over cutting trees to widen the Sankey Bund Road is diverting the attention from a life-threatening disaster-in-waiting which has to be addressed with utmost urgency.
The critical issue of tampering with the Sankey Bund Road – an 1882-built mud construction fortified with stones only on the lake-facing side – and the catastrophic consequences it would have on life and property on the low-lying, densely populated Vyalikaval, Kodandapura and Gayathridevi Extension side of the bund, has neither been studied nor even debated.
Experts have warned that going ahead with broadening the Sankey Bund Road (which runs along the Sankey Lake side to connect Bhashyam Circle with the Sankey Lake Park Entrance, at the mouth of 18th Cross Malleswaram) could prove extremely dangerous for those living in the Vyalikaval side of Sankey Bund Road, which is a low-lying area.
This is where Stella Maris Girls' High School stands alongside hundreds of residential building, besides the well-known violin-shaped Chowdaiah Memorial Hall and the famous Balaji Temple run by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam.
Despite the threat, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to go ahead with the Sankey Bund Road widening plan. At least 17 trees have already been cut to make way for the widening.
Advisor to state government on infrastructure and CEO of Consortia of Infrastructure Engineers, MN Sreehari, says "The risk is that there is a large water body on one side. Where would the retaining wall come up?" he says. Retaining walls help stabilise the slopes of a bund and protect planted and grass areas from erosion.
Archana MR, assistant professor, civil engineering department, RV College of Engineering, says a lot of work needs to be done on the side of the tank as there is a high water pressure. "With the monsoon setting in, measures need to be taken to ensure safety. Proper reinforcement is not given in terms of geo-grids. Retaining walls should be ensured, so that the water pressure can be sustained on the bund side. Also, soil reinforcement has to be done to reduce the water pressure. Soil stability is an important issue that should be looked into," she said.
But the removal of trees by BBMP would only loosen the soil, which could lead to landslides or collapse of the bund. Experts point out that as only the lake-facing side of the bund is fortified by a retaining wall and the other is mere mud slope, the removal of trees could lead to catastrophic results – the bund collapsing on the residential side of the bund due to the water pressure.
Sreehari suggests traffic solutions as an alternative to widening Sankey Bund Road. He says Sankey Road should be converted to three-lane traffic with two lanes devoted to the peak side of vehicle movement.
However, BBMP in-charge chief engineer (major works), KT Nagaraj, defends the project under his agency: "There will be no problem for the tank bund. We will only dump 10 feet of mud to the level of the existing road and use concrete to construct the road." But let's not forget that heavy vehicles have been banned from moving on the Sankey Tank Bund Road only because of the delicate nature of the mud-built bund. How tonnes of additional mud and debris would help, only time will tell.
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