D K Shivakumar.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday said the Defence Ministry has agreed to hand over 12.34 acres of land to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to widen the road from Lower Agaram to Sarjapur here.
He held discussions with Lieutenant General Basant Kumar Repswal, Commandant of Army Service Corps (ASC) Centre and College, at Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature and secretariat here.
“The Defence Ministry has agreed to hand over 12.34 acres of land to BBMP and has given an in-principle consent to handover another 10.77 acres of land to widen road from Lower Agaram to Sarjapur," Shivakumar, who is also in-charge Minister for Bengaluru Development, told reporters.
"This will help reduce travel time from M G Road to Bellandur from 1 hour to 5-8 minutes. The Chief Minister and I had submitted our request to the Union Defence Minister. The Defence Minister has agreed to our request and has agreed to hand over about 22 acres of land for road widening," he said.
Noting that tender has already been called for the first stretch of 3.5 km at a cost of Rs 35 crore, the Deputy CM said, once the Defence Ministry hands over the remaining 10.77 acres of land, it would ease traffic from the City centre to the IT hub.
"This project would greatly help citizens of Bengaluru, especially those in Bengaluru East. As a Bengaluru Development Minister, I used to get 8-10 emails a day on traffic issues in East Bengaluru. In view of this, I had inspected the traffic issues in the area. Widening of the road with the help of the Defence Ministry would significantly ease traffic in this area," he explained.
Further he said that the state government has also submitted an appeal to the Defence Ministry for two acres of land for the proposed tunnel road near Military Dairy Farm near Hebbal. "We have really worked hard to acquire defence land for Bengaluru Roads. We had even submitted appeals to the Defence Minister and Prime Minister."
Asked what the Defence Ministry has sought in return for the handover of defence land, he said, “The Defence Ministry has asked for certain basic amenities in certain areas in return for the land and we will fulfil that commitment."
"Lieutenant General Repswal, who helped us close this arrangement, is retiring on September 30 and hence, we invited him to Vidhana Soudha to felicitate him," Shivakumar said.