[poloman]

The most cherishing picture of Bangalore in the minds of people will be its beautiful tree lined avenues. Just a stroll on the beautiful lanes of heritage areas of the city like Basavangudi and Malleswaram had such a soothing effect on ones mind. All that is changing now.
A monster called BBMP is hell bent on robbing the heritage value and beauty of the city with its ill conceived and corrupt practices.
The latest fatal blow from this good for nothing body is widening of Sankey road ignoring the pleas of thousands of residents and felling more than 500 trees. This in a heritage area like Malleswaram. What they are going to achieve by widening this 1Km stretch of road is still a mystery. We have many roads with much worse traffic. Traffic is crawling with civil woks and potholed roads on most of the roads. But they are not interested in solving the traffic problems by speeding up the works or maintaining the roads in better condition.
The only solution from BBMP for city’s woes is to cut trees, demolish heritage structures and widen the road by ridiculous extends like 2-3m. What exists today is a clear nexus between the cooperators, people's representatives and contractors. These cooperators are nothing but political goons whose only aim is to mint money. Once trees are cut and money comes to their pocket, they will lose the interest in the project and move to next area. Hundreds of trees were felled similarly on Suranjan Das road connecting Old airport road and Old Madras road 2 years back. No widening has taken place yet and all that you can see is heart wrenching scene of big stubs of majestic trees once dotted that beautiful road. Tagore circle underpass is another blunder of ridiculous propositions.You can give hundreds of examples of sheer apathy from the agency which is ruled by illiterates and morons. The government who has to rein in such bodies are busy in some thing else.Deccan Herald, today has carried a hard hitting editorial on the issue. Looks like only God can save our beautiful Bangalore from this demon called BBMP.

[libranof1987]

Agreed cutting trees is a terrible thing but is there any other option?

Traffic is increasing exponentially in all parts of B'lore; roads are grossly insufficient. What can be done in such cases? Only widening roads can help now. And for that, unfortunately, trees have to be felled.

That saplings 100 times the no. of trees felled should be planted elsewhere is a given; this is the only thing we can ensure BBMP adheres to.

I don't think there is any other alternative than felling trees; heart-wrenching but necessary.

[amitoj]

Road widening by cutting trees is a temporary solution with permanent damage.

The only thing it will fix is the pockets of some contractors and babus.

This city needed Metro 5 years back.

[Gansan]

Is this the road starting at Bhashyam circle and joining the main road (C.V.Raman Road?) just before Sadashiv Nagar police station? I used to take that road to enter New BEL Road while returning from work, almost every single day for five years! Beautiful, lush green road with sparse traffic - that was six years ago, no idea how it is now. Very sad to lose trees, but sometimes it is inevitable.

[lamborghini]

While I have never been to Bangalore, I can feel your pain. In today's world, we need places such as Sankey road that you have described so well.
If it is indeed a heritage area, and heritage buildings are on the verge of being demolished, is there anything you, or a group of citizens can do to prevent this?
IIRC, heritage structures cannot be touched that easily, and the government has strict laws about the same. In such a case, would it be possible for a group of motivated citizens to file a PIL or something questioning the move given the seriousness of the matter and the opportunity cost of the money (which can be spent on improving roads and sidewalks)?
Hopefully the courts would be more understanding than the deep pockets of many (not all - some are superb) politicians and govt. employees.

[poloman]

Yes, some times it is inevitable but the authority has the obligation to plant more trees for every tree it cut.But has any one seen such initiative bearing fruit in the city? That also ends up in corruption with trees planted only in paper.
Widening road is not a soultion to traffic woes. Has traffic woes on hosur road gone away with commisioning of 12 lanes.
Save green cover

[PAVAN KADAM]

A thread like this is bound to have varied responses, but somethings are really inevitable. For the better traffic flow the trees has to go, moreover these trees are aged, i have witnessed many car windshields broken in the last 12 years of my commute on this road. I lost my ORVM from a broken branch few years ago, got a dent on my car's roof many years ago.

Best thing is , plant equal or more number of trees elsewhere and continue with the development work.

We need wider roads guys..

[download2live]

NO IT IS NOT INEVITABLE.

This is just poor planning. 500 trees are not a joke. No matter how much you widen the roads the traffic swells up back to the same level. If that is the rationale behind widening the roads in this case too then it is not going to serve any purpose.

I will request the people to start a movement against this. Other wise be ready to see roads and just roads. If you want to get an idea visit Marathalli.

But who to appeal too? CM and others are busy visiting temples to show how truthful they are. What a sham.

[viper_711]

I can't recall exactly but remember reading about this a few months back that a study shows that of all the metro's BLR has the least amount of roads and Delhi the most.

My years in BLR and thanks to advent of Google maps and my regular use of it tells me that the problem in BLR is not narrow roads - sure there may be instances of this - the problem is the number of roads is less!
To elaborate: Just see the amount of land that the Army/Govt institutions controls in the city and try and analyse the busy routes - the answer seems clearly that if all the large tracts of land under Govt. control were to have a new road passing through them, it would take a load off the busier roads.

I am not a regular user of the sankey tank road but have always enjoyed the stretch whenever passing by. I am not sure of the situation here during peak hours.

[Spitfire]

Simple: One cant have his cake and eat it too.

Hypocrisy is the name of the game when it comes to felling trees, wanting a water connection, wanting cars, wanting a better life, wanting traffic free roads and what not.

We have a spineless and selfish community in this city. When was the last time someone stood for a cause and people supported it without any vested interests.

No one helps a accident victim, trees come much lower on that scale.

You, me and a handful others can make a difference but when you have to hit the people who count our vote does not work.

[SilentEngine]

I am a regular user of this road during weekends. Before the underpass work near IISc and Maramma circle began, this road used to be jammed one-way (from 18th cross to Bashyam circle) during peak hours. The reason for this is the signal at Bashyam circle is a long one. So it doesn't matter how much wide the road is going to be. As long as there is a choke point at the signal, road widening is not going to help at all.

Also in this case, widening is not about just cutting trees and laying tar. One side of the road has to be filled to bring its level to road's current level. Given BBMP's track record, if this project starts, its anybody's guess how long this is going to take.

According to this article in Deccan Herald (Sankey Road widening in a week), it seems there is also a plan to build a 'passover' at the signal. I think this is more useful than widening the road, as this will reduce the wait time at the signal.

Originally Posted by download2live

But who to appeal too? CM and others are busy visiting temples to show how truthful they are. What a sham.

+1

[androdev]

The so-called magic underpass at the Cauvery theater on this road is such a monumental disaster, the engineer responsible must be the most incompetent person in the history of engineering. A well-designed signal-free solution will solve the problem to a large extent. Widening is less effective as long as signals/bottlenecks remain.

[lohithrao]

Such an easy option isnt it, merely few feet of road can be widened but is it anyway comparable to the traffic?

With the way vehicular population is growing even a 6lane might get congested few years down the line...

Only way is to get the public/metro transport in place and ban the private vehicles plying atleast on some routes...

i think the bigger picture is missed by the Govt with 100s of new vehicles getting on road everyday, wil the few feet expansion work and for how long? Indiranagr (CMH road is a good example....

[deep_bang]

I used to use this road for more than a decade until 2 years ago. The traffic had become quite bad right then.

In my opinion the bottle neck is the bashyam circle and one solution can be to increase the bandwidth of that circle alone. For example flyover is one possibility. Or widening of road only near the signal so 2 lanes become 4 lanes so that during the green signal time double the vehicles can pass through.

Just widening the road does not change the number of vehicles passing through the bottle isn't it?
take as a 4 year project and by the time this is completed another 10000 vehicles are added and the solution goes for a toss again.

[Spitfire]

To those saying widening of roads does not help. Have a look at the areas around Majestic Busstand.

But not just widening they should apply some science to it.