overbridge

railway overbridge

Carmelaram

Bengaluru

BBMP

Bangalore

By Akhila DamodaranUncertainty onas authorities claim residents are unwilling to part with landAfter two years of struggle for a(ROB) in, near Sarjapur, residents now feel ‘cheated’ by the officials, including the Member of Parliament (MP), the MLA and the BruhatMahanagara Palike (). The long pending ROB that was supposed to take off just before the elections has now been halted, fear the residents.The residents have been fighting this as the tech crowd has been mushrooming year after year in Sarjapur area. They fear that this would choke the Carmelaram Junction badly.The Carmelaram ROB did get a final nod, but the authorities now seem to have ended up in a dilemma about it. The government had sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the project, but the BBMP says it is unlikely to kick-off. They blame the residents for not giving up the land for the construction of the bridge.Amit Kumar, a techie and a resident of Carmelaram, says that the road widening that was taken up by MP P C Mohan is not a ‘permanent solution’. Amit said, “We get stuck at the railway crossing for 30 to 45 minutes every day during the peak hours. The residents were happy when Congress member Rizwan Arshad had pushed for this ROB in BBMP and got the Rs 20 crore for the project.”Another resident said, “The authorities are working on suburban railways too and this would mean that there would be more trains passing by and the gate would be closed for almost the entire day.” George Sunil, a techie, said, “Ambulances gets stuck here every day for more than 15 minutes.” Residents also alleged that workers of various political parties who own property in the area and are denying to give up their land for the construction of the bridge.BBMP Executive Engineer for Road Infrastructure, Jaishankar Reddy said, “We have written a letter to the South Western Railway (SWR) requesting them to submit the General Alignment Drawings (GAD). Once they submit the alignment drawing, we will get to know how much land needs to be acquired and how much funds will be needed for this project.” He also said that it is getting difficult as the residents are not agreeing to give away their properties.Alternatively, in a clever move, BBMP wants to now shift this fund to other project in the same area to ease the traffic. The BBMP has now floated tenders for the formation of a new road at the cost of Rs 11 crore. Reddy said that the 150 feet road will be connecting from the Outer Ring Road (ORR) to Varthur via Bhoganahalli Road and Gunjur. “This road would also need a ROB or RUB (railway under bridge). Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali suggested it instead of the ROB at Carmelaram,” he added.PC Mohan is in no mood to give up. He toldMirror, “BBMP has to pay the money to the Railways as per cost sharing basis of this project. Let them do that and I will ensure that this project will continue.” He also promised that he would meet the Railway officials and discuss the matter.However, his colleague in the same party is clearly not in agreement. MLA Arvind Limbavali said that the ROB is not feasible as there is not enough space for the landing of the over bridge on the other side of the road. He told BM, “We had a meeting recently with the Mahadevapura Task Force. I had suggested the BBMP not to waste time writing to Railways as they will receive the same response.”That is the reason why the MLA is backing a plan to construct a rail flyover between Carmelaram and Panathur area. Limbavali also said that this will connect to the ORR and Varthur and he has requested The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) to finance 50 per cent of the said flyover.