Whitefield road plans fall prey to filter sand

Enough controversy has been witnessed in the construction of a road at GKVK. Now, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has courted a similar controversy; this time in Whitefield.

On Monday, the chairman of BBMP’s standing committee on major works, H Ravindra, called off two road-widening projects at Whitefield as they were being carried out ‘unscientifically using sub-standard material’. The drain work is substandard and they are using filter sand, said Harish, a committee member.

The suspended projects are the ones connecting Hope Farm Industries Circle to Kadugodi Road and Hope Farm Industries to Chikka Thirupathi Road.

“I am ordering the officials to provide all details of the road. The committee will verify and submit a copy to the commissioner. I have also ordered the officials not to release the amount to the contractors,” said Ravindra.

When the committee inspected the 2.2-km road-widening work between Hope Farm Industries Circle and Kadugodi Road carried out at a cost of Rs4.5 crore, they were shocked to see that the road, which was supposed to be 80-ft wide throughout, was reduced to just 30ft at Pattallamma Layout.

“It comes to a sudden halt as a house blocks the road from continuing it further. The house-owner has challenged the demolition of his house in the court. Leaving the house, the engineers continued the road work further with twist and turns at the new railway gate which connects FCI Road at Kadugodi,” said Ravindra.

He said that the road was diverted abruptly, taking a left turn towards the Pattallamma Layout which was against the CPD plan.

“This has been done as the land of a private builder comes in the way of road construction. The builder, through the influence of the local MLA, directed the engineers to divert the road. The road connecting  Kadugodi Road was constructed next to the Railway gate which is unscientific,” Ravindra said.

According to a BBMP engineer, the road near the railway gate should be minimum 30m radius for vehicles to take a turn. “But the road has been constructed without any plan or forethought. The BBMP has to construct a road over bridge to avoid traffic congestion,” officer said.

The committee members also inspected the road-widening work on 2.3-km stretch from Hope Farm Industries to Chikka Tirupathi Road which is being widened to 24 m. “We are purchasing the land through TDR and already 23 forms have been issued,” said a committee member.

The committee found that the drain work on the stretch was constructed using substandard materials. The committee also visited Mahadevapura village where Dr BR Ambedkar Bhavan auditorium and multi-purpose training centre is coming up at a cost of Rs18 crore.