The Department of Urban Land Transport’s (DULT) proposal to widen the Sankey Road by cutting down 836 trees and demolishing several private properties has finally been truncated to a more ‘acceptable’ proportion.
The BBMP has now narrowed down the proposed carriageway to 27 mts from 30 mts on the Sankey Tank Bund Boad and further curtailed the alignment from Sankey Tank gate to Maramma Circle to save the trees and properties that needed to be demolished.
With the new alignment there is no need to acquire a portion of Stella Maris School or the adjoining temple, besides saving at least 80 per cent of the trees that were to be felled as proposed in the DULT report. Currently, the number of trees that need to be felled is placed at 19.
By changing the alignment from Sankey Tank gate to Maramma Circle, the BBMP has prevented felling of a number of trees.
However, there is likely to be a high casualty of trees with 13 of them on the road side and 49 of them which form part of the Forest Department campus.
The revised plan which has been outrightly rejected by the residents of Malleswaram is now estimated at Rs 5.96 crore from Bhashyam Circle to Sankey Tank entrance. The road widening package from Sankey Tank entrance to CNR Rao junction is estimated to cost Rs 4.89 crore.
DULT in its report, justifying the need for a widened road from Yeshwanthpur to Cauvery Junction as part of a signal free corridor, had suggested that the actual chock-a-block usually occurs between Bhashyam Circle and Sankey Tank entrance where the carriageway reduces drastically.
Traffic bottleneck
“When this stretch is compared to the segment from Cauvery Junction to Bhashyam Circle, the reduction of road width from 33 meters to 11 meters can be noticed, creating a bottleneck and thus, resulting in huge traffic jams during peak hours,” the report stated.
The Sankey Road widening project has been divided into five packages by the BBMP and is estimated to cost Rs 33.20 crore.