Bangalore:
A year after work began, this bridge remains incomplete. Steel rods jutting out, cement blocks piled up on the roadside and machines idling tell a story of utter neglect. A perennial cloud of dust envelops this part of the New BEL Road in front of the apartment complex in Sanjay Nagar.
The haphazardly done work had left people wondering if the authorities will finish the work before monsoon. Residents have reason to worry as Gowri Apartment complex and Ramakrishna Gardens Layout of RMV 2nd Stage faced floods during rains. Late arrival of North-East Monsoon on Sunday may trigger mud flows into the basements of apartments.
"I stay down the road opposite to the place where the elevated road is coming up. During recent rains, water and mud flowed into the road below and we had to walk through slush. Moreover, the vehicles on the main road kept splashing muddy water on pedestrians and the work was halted. I wonder when they are going to finish it," said Swati Jewerajka,a resident of New BEL Road.
"The work was scheduled to be completed by September-end this year. But it remains half-done. After I became the corporator, this emerged as one of the major issues and people want a solution. Our engineers were supposed to start levelling the road. I have taken up the matter and hopefully the work will be completed as early as possible," said Muniswamy Gowda, corporator of ward 36.
Residents have no clue of what is going on. "The work started a year ago. But the progress was slow. Now that the bridge construction is over, road-laying work has to be started. No one answers why it has been halted. The air we breathe is highly polluted," said Srinivas Naidu, president of Gowri Apartments Residents Welfare Association.
Being one of the main roads linking Vidyaranapura and Dodda Bommasandra to Yeshwantpur and Matthikere, traffic on New BEL Road is always heavy.
Water from Sadashivanagar's drains too flows into the low-lying road. Another half-a-kilometre drain has to be re-constructed after which the road-levelling work will begin.
But there is a hint on when the work could probably get over. "The residents of RK Gardens suffer air pollution most hazards as the construction site is close to their apartments. I have been constantly complaining about this to the local corporator, MLA and BBMP officials. One good thing has emerged out of this. They are saying that the bridge and road-levelling work will be completed in six months," said Govindraj, secretary of RK Gardens Residents' Welfare Association.
The RK Park lies across the road. Neither the BDA nor the BBMP has finalised the plan to re-build this civic amenity space. It lies barren and residents' association is fighting for its improvement.
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