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Underpass at Tagore Circle - End of Gandhi Bazaar?

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The pleasure of shopping on Gandhi Bazaar Main Road in Basavanagudi may be lost forever, if the underpass at Tagore Circle at the beginning of the road materializes. Yes, this proposal now seems to have moved and Deccan Herald has published traffic diversions to accommodate this project. I have put in all the pieces in a hurry. Sorry for any editing lapses. The ill-conceived and irrelevant underpass at a junction with so less traffic density not only would consume the lush Tagore Park, but would render this pride of South Bangalore tree less.

BMP’s then Mayor and the past MLA of Basavanagudi who created the National College Flyover despite opposition, was in favour of this infrastructural blunder, less than half a kilometer from the flyover. The present MLA is hardly to be heard after elections and atleast now should come out and oppose this underpass programme of BBMP. When the National college flyover was built several hundreds of trees were cut for the flyover, while the Mayor kept promising that no tree would be cut. The flyover remains under utilized till date as people avoid the flyover due to too many intersections. BMP has built a flyover at the National College Circle, just few hundred meters away from the proposed underpass that remains underutilized for more than three years. The Bangalore Traffic Police should oppose this, as no scientific planning seems to have gone behind this. About a kilometer away is the proposed Core Ring Road (near Market), and the Mono Rail that connects Kathriguppe and National College probably passes through this junction. And Namma Metro would run just a block away.

BMP along with the Traffic Police should divert vehicles to the flyover by closing all the medians on V V Road, and streamline the traffic at RK Ashram circle. This would ease the pressure on BP Wadia Road and other Basavanagudi Roads ensuring smooth flow from Lalbagh West Gate to RK Ashram.

An underpass at Tagore Circle would mean more vehicles on the shopping street and no place for shoppers to walk and vendors to sell. And without removing these trees, the underpass would be too narrow. The pavements too on this road have been narrowed down considerably making the trees stand a good 15 feet away from the pavement. The elected representatives should protect the heritage of Basavanagudi and not resort to its systematic elimination. Gandhi Bazaar would be gone forever. And this is too high a price the electorate of Basavanagudi would be paying to facilitate movement of vehicles from other localities, since Basavanagudi would only be used as a transit point. DO WE HAVE ANY HOPE?

Comments

srinidhi's picture

one way on gandhibazaar main road?

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maybe this is long due..as Arun says we have to vacate the vegetable vendors and fruit vendors from the footpath and move them to the now defunct market.. Corporator Chandrashekhar had proposed this but the hawkers did not allow the market to be developed! Lobbies lobbies..have spoilt everything..the national college flyover was a colossal waste of money and so is this tagore circle plan..
Vasanth's picture

National College Circle Flyover

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As soon as one gets down the National college circle flyover, there are signals both on the Lalbagh west gate side and Ashrama side. If this would have been built during those days till westgate on the East Side and till Ashrama on the west side, by passing the signals at the Women's Peace League, KR Road, Kanakapura road, it would have been really meaning full. Also, the traffic flow is towards the Jain college - Sajjan Rao circle, so a ramp like the ramp on the anand rao circle flyover towards race course is needed on the east bound route towards Jain College. With the available space on the KR Road junction below this flyover, 4 loops could have been easily built which was not done. This shows the incapability of the builder and very poor judging ability of our then Mayor/MLA Chandrashekar who forced the design without any consultation with Traffic police or experts. Many of the businesses such as the Butter Sponge, a very famous bakery lost its business because of this flyover inconvenicnce since its foot print is very large on the road. I would say, simply demolish this!!!
Photoyogi's picture

Tagore Circle Underpass

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Dear Arun, Thanks for throwing light on this, Having done a good part of my Schooling at East West School Basavanagudi, I am deeply concerned about the trees that might be cut down in the area. Is it possible for you to draw a map where exactly this underpass is expected? I remember a *huge* gulmohar tree at the corner of the Canara Bank (begining of GandhiBazaar) I hope thats not going to be cut down :-( -- Praveen Sundaram AkA PhotoYogi

-- PhotoYogi

Arun's picture

Help required for design of alternatives

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namma_nadu's picture

Killing Basavanagudi the concrete way

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I am apalled at the arrogance, incompetence and the sheer deafness of the authorities - starting from the infamous ex-MLA all the way to the Chief Minister aided by unscrupulous Bureaucrats in killing basavanagudi. Apparently they dont seem to have learnt any lessons after the national college flyover disaster. Tagore park junction is certainly not the most important traffic clog/jam today and would certainly not feature in the top 20 in Bangalore today. Why the hurry and why are they pushing this covertly? Certainly a disgrace. This will spoil the area. It would be better if these jokers (for want of a better wor to describe their antics) were to go around the city like normal citizens and see the pathetic traffic jams across places like Bannerghata road, BTM Ring Road, JP Nagar, Jayanagar IV and IX blocks just to cite a few in south bangalore. Is there something we can do. What can we do about this?
Srivatsava's picture

Underpass/Flyover is for public use only!!

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   Over the past few weeks, there have been too much noise on the tree felling on KR Road and other areas. We dont have to lose the trees for constructing the metro. Right from my days as a National High School students since mid-90's, I have noticed that the fenced lawn/park along the KR Road has never been put into any use. We should allow the Metro authorities to trans-locate the trees on KR road into these park. That will still ensure that the green cover of the area remains intact. These parks along the road should be converted into the urban forest, possibly with a walking track, for the use of the residents.
    Coming to the Tagore Circle underpass, we dont have to lose more than 10-15 trees for the project. These can very well be re-located to the park that makes up the circle, since the park also remains unused. Also, there is enough alternatives in the vicinity for the trees to replanted. The ones on my mind are the Govt Boys High school and Womens High School & PU College nearby. These have large playgrounds, and trees can definitely planed on the edges of the playground. Also, MN Krishna Rao park and TR Shamanna Park (Bugle Rock) are less than 250m away. Why the trees be moved there.
  
    My basic point is that we need not lose our trees for development projects. Nor can we do without such underpasses, flyovers, metro lines, wide roads etc. transpalnating trees to nearby areas remain the best option.
    The above points are valid for so many other roads like RV road (South end to 40th Cross for metro), Vijaynagar Chord road (again for metro). I take examples form the south Bangalore areas I am familiar with. Other Praja users and authorities can identify such alternatives for many other roads.

-Srivatsava V
http://srivatsava-vajapey...


-Srivatsava V

Srivatsava's picture

Blocking development , forever...

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   Vasanth ( A resident of south bangalore??) rightly points out the need for the flyover connecting RK Ashama to Lalbagh. Unfortunately it will never happen. Reason? A few months back, Ashrama-supporters have started work  to install a Vivekananda Statue at the middle of Ashrama Circle. We can probably demolish the National college flyover for a altenative structure, but ashama circle is forever occupied by the Statue. Surely, Vivekananda himself doesnt deserve to be 'standing' in the midst of the vehicular pollution, nor would he want to  cause inconvinience to tens of thousands of people using the road. ( Apologies for any minor innaccuracies aboout the development at the Ashrama Circle. I noticed during my visit to Bangalore in July)



-Srivatsava V


http://srivatsava-vajapey...

-Srivatsava V

murali772's picture

this is not development

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Srivatsava saaibare'

Most  PRAJA members do not agree with BBMP's current  'development' approach. I am sure neither will Vivekananda if he were alive today. As such, I think his soul will rest easier with his followers putting up the statue to balk such 'development'.

In fact, I think the only way to force the powers that be to do a re-think would be to construct temples/ statues all over the city.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
asj's picture

Agree

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Agree, this is not development. If Shrish Patel, architect and town planner who designed Mumbai's Kemps Corner flyover in 60s is rightly quoted by the media that 'chaos is only pushed from one junction to another' then this is worst form of development. ASJ
ravishankar's picture

Not a good sign

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I have done most of my education right from 8th std till my BE in institutions on KR Road and this is the last thing I would want to see happening to that place.

Most of the traffic on KR road or around gandhi bazaar is mostly in peak hours mostly from 6.00-7.30PM. I don't see too much of a congestion at Tagore junction as well. Maybe if they stop the traffic from taking right from gandhi bazaar towards Basavanagudi police station, it would ease most of the problem.

National college flyover has been the most under utilized flyover as far as i have seen. Can the authorities provide proper statistics as to why a flyover or underpass is necessary when things can be handled by placing a traffic policeman guiding the traffic.
Srivatsava's picture

Ashrama Circle :Lost Forever

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   ASJ quotes that 'transferring congestion from junction to another is a bad form development', but let me tell you,  dear friend ASJ, that it is not worst form of 'development'. The worse thing would be to ensure congestion at a junction where smooth flow could have been easily implemented. That is what has happened at Ashrama Circle with the installation of the Statue in the middle of a busy road!!

   Murali sir, with all due respect to you and your viewpoint, let me point out to you that Ashrama Circle is a junction of five(5) important roads, all carrying bi-directional traffic. And at such a junction, smooth traffic movement is necessary, irrespective of whether you are travelling by public or private transport. This was my submission.

   At any point, I did not support the BBMP model of development. With humility, let me point out that I am unaware of either 'BBMP model of development' or the 'Praja model of development'.

   Even in my first comment on this thread, I opined that wider roads, metro etc were as important the trees lost for the purpose of 'development'. Hence, I proposed trans-planting the trees as solution and identified land in the vicinity of some major roads, even requesting other Praja members to suggest lands for such tree re-planting in other areas, so that no area had a reduction in the number of trees because of metro/road widening.

    I am new member to Praja, but definitely not intending to confront Praja memebers.

 

-Srivatsava V

http://srivatsava-vajapey...

-Srivatsava V

Vasanth's picture

BDA officer was given 20 lakhs bribe to sanction money

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Yesterday Lokayukta caught hold of a BDA officer who was receiving 20 lakhs bribe from a Chennai based construction company to pass the bills easily for Magadi Road underpass and another somewhere else. This shows why our underpasses and flyovers are not that effective -- Bribe by the builders to officers of organizations like BDA / BBMP will mask all the quality points needed. Same has happened behind the scenes of the National College Circle flyover and may be Tagore circle underpass is coming up for reasons something like this??
asj's picture

Reason for implementing these contraptions right-left & center

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The reason for implementing these contraptions right-left and center is now apparent. Srivatsava V, my fellow, the quote is not mine, it is from someone who is well known for his town planning skills. And because I have seen the benefit of 55 flyovers (built in late 90s and early part of this decade) in Mumbai vanish in no time, I am convinced too. ASJ
murali772's picture

megalomania

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Hi Srivatsava

After reading the suggestions made by you on the other blog 'help required - - ', I decided to glance through your personal blog. I must say you do write well. And, as a senior member of PRAJA, I am happy to welcome you to our fold.

PRAJA is a debating platform - a virtual meeting hall, as we would like to call it - and, contrary opinions are most welcome, even if they tend to get a bit heated at times (indeed, I can be accused of taking it to those levels at times), as long as they do not get personal and the language used is not 'unparliamentary'. So, don't worry - you haven't offended anyone.

Amidst all the cacophony, if we can arrive at a consensus on some of the points, we pursue them through working groups, like we formed to meet the ADCP, Mr Praveen Sood.

I am not very familiar with the Gandhi Bazaar area to be in a position to comment on your suggestion. But, this is the approach that will generally be appreciated in PRAJA (I trust I have the standing to say so), since most of us feel that the 'megalomanic' approach of the powers that be is essentially to line the pockets of the various individuals involved, as has clearly been established from the case involving the BDA engineer.

You talked about transplanting trees. But, that is hardly the solution, since it's not enough to have pockets of greenery. There has to be a uniform spread of greenery across the city. Besides, if I understand correctly, the rate of survival of transplanted trees is very low if they are beyond three years old, apart from the cost of transplanting them being extremely high.

When I talked about erecting statues/ temples in the middle of the road, it essentially reflected my desperation over the inability to prevent this kind of a megalomanic approach. In actuality, I am for ceremonial shifting of all such structures - pl see  http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/06/28/shrine-entrepreneurship

In the case of the 'Ashram' junction also, perhaps there may be better solutions than what the BBMP/ BDA is proposing. And, like in the case of the Tagore circle, if we in PRAJA can come up with a viable alternative, I am sure, the people who erected the Vivekananda statue can be talked to and convinced to relocate the statue. Let's pursue such approaches.

As for solutions to the overall traffic problems in the city, my suggestion is detailed at  http://praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore . You'll notice it has a fair amount of support, though quite a few have expressed some kinds of reservations also. But, I continue in my efforts to make people see my point of view. Well, that's democracy. It's a slow process; but, a more sure one. Atleast, that's what I would like to believe!

So, welcome once again. Happy PRAJAing!     

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
Naveen's picture

I Second What Mr.Murali Says

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Hi Srivatsava & all,

Mr.Murali's expressions above are exactly what we stand for in Praja. I strongly support what he says & believes. Quite correctly, he indicates that opinions can vary vastly, & debates are the only way ahead, always. I salute Mr.Murali for putting this across in such an excellent manner.

Cheers to Praja !

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