Locality’s low ranking upsets Bangalore leader

A residential layout with broad roads and parks developed by the BDA in 1984 came 16th in the DNA-AZ research on the most liveable areas in Bangalore.

Residents feel the wide roads have changed the equation of HSR (Hosur Sarjapur Road) Layout for its betterment. Besides, it has a number of well-maintained parks. But the biggest advantage of this 1500-acre locality is the beautiful Agara Lake.

K Latha Narasimha Murthy, civic leader of HSR Layout, is foxed why the locality got the backbench status while everything is going well.

“Being among the top 20 residential areas is nice, but we are striving to be a model to other localities by coming up with various new ways of approaching the residents for better transparency,” says a beaming Latha.

“With a huge population of over 1 lakh voters, only 48,000 voters turned up to vote this time,” says she.

The locality is doing well in terms of civic amenities. “Dust bins have been distributed to all the houses. An auto collects the garbage. This method has been in practice from a long time and it helps in maintaining cleanliness around us,” says she.   

Latha is, however, piqued that the BBMP does not call tenders in this area for the maintenance of street lights since April 1 2010. On an average, 7 out of 10 complaints from residents are on faulty street lights. Hence, the streets become a risky zone after dusk for elders and women. 

The bars along the roads retail liquor that result in drunken rowdyism, complain many residents. The locality has just one playground and it is too inadequate to serve the residents’ needs.
In an area populated by a lakh, there should be at least one medical store which functions 24 hours, says Dillip Kumar, a resident. 

The traffic problems in and around HSR Layout and Agara have been taken care of by building a flyover and widening the roads. Road chaos is a rare thing even during peak hours, say commuters. But the ring road still remains a bottleneck, says N Nathan, a resident.

In a locality where civic problems are taken care of without any hassle by residents, there is a growing need for public toilets near parks, temples and other public utility places. Crime rates are within the limit and residents thank the local police for this.