PM Modi defers Bengaluru visit but residents happy with road repairs

After spending Rs 1.5 crore to repair a 1.8-km stretch in Nagarabhavi at lightning speed to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was in for a huge disappointment as the PM’s scheduled visit was deferred indefinitely.

Modi was scheduled to visit the city for the inauguration of the Bengaluru Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) on Monday.

However, regardless of the PM’s visit being put off, local residents are happy that their request for better roads, spanning several years, has finally been addressed.

Sources in the Higher Education Department and BASE told DH that they do not know why the visit was deferred indefinitely. “We received a communication from the Central government that visit has been deferred,” an official said.

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Acknowledging the cancelling of the Prime Minister’s visit, N R Bhanumurthy, vice-chancellor, BASE, said: “The event has been deferred and the revised date will be announced later.”

Meanwhile, residents of Nagarabhavi and those living in and around Jnanabharati are thanking Modi for the road repair works.

“This was one of the stretches in the locality that was ignored for years. We thank the PM as his visit helped in getting the road repaired... something that was not done in years,” said an elated resident of Nagarabhavi.

A faculty member from Bangalore University said: “I take this route from Nagarabhavi to the Jnanabharati campus daily. For the last few years, I used to curse the authorities every day for the bad roads. But for the last one week, I felt happy to travel by this road.”

Repairs have nothing to do with PM’s visit: BBMP

“The repair works at that particular stretch were pending for a few years and even the approval was given a year ago. But due to some reasons, it was not taken up. We have not done it for the Prime Minister’s visit. The PM’s visit was sheer coincidence,” said a senior BBMP official.

BASE University campus is located on 43 acres at Jnanabharathi on the Bangalore University campus and around Rs150 crore was spent on the construction work.

The institution has been set up in line with the London School of Economics and this is the third batch of students with 250 on board. The academic sessions of BASE were inaugurated at the Dr BR Ambedkar Bhavan by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2017.

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