Underpass at Tagore Circle - End of Gandhi Bazaar?

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!!!

   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 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

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.

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??

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