Manyata Tech Park flyover controversy

By Qamar ZJ

In a month’s time, one lakh-odd employees of Manyata Tech Park on Outer Ring Road (ORR) will have direct entry and exit ramps to their office due to the signal-free flyover access from Hebbal to Hennur. However, this will be at the expense of the local residents. The Embassy Group had illegally demolished the descending and ascending ramps to Veerannapalya flyover and Nagawara flyover during the construction, which has cut off access to residents of Coffee Board Layout, Dasarahalli, Mariyannapalya, Thanisandra, Nagawara, Fraser Town, Govindpura, Veerannapalya, LR Bande, Sultanpalya and several parts of RT Nagar. Therefore, the residents are demanding the builder to rebuild the demolished ramps to ease the bottleneck. 

According to CIVIC Bangalore, an NGO, the altered traffic patterns of the new flyover will result in heavy traffic jams at Veerannapalya and Nagawara signals (under the two flyovers). “The new flyover does not really solve any problems; it merely shifts these problems from the gates of Manyata Tech Park to the Veerannapalya and Nagawara signals. In fact, even Manyata employees will be affected due to the spillover effect of these two jams thus negating whatever benefits Embassy group had hoped to accrue for its own employees,” says Kathyayini Chamaraj of CIVIC. 

The Veerannapalya Residents Welfare Association (VRWA) and Nagawara Residents Welfare Association (NRWA) offer three simple ways to tide over the issue, but the Embassy Group isn’t listening:
1. Provision of a one-lane descending ramp from Nagawara Flyover to ORR Service
Road;
2. Provision of a one-lane ascending ramp from ORR Service Road to
Veerannapalya Flyover;
3. Provision of same-level access from Dhee School Road to ORR (Hebbal to Hennur
Side) and from ORR (Hebbal to Hennur side) to Dhee School Road (from
underneath the new flyover).

The BBMP has responded to the residents’ request and asked Embassy to submit the drawings for the rebuilding of the two ramps that the citizens have demanded. Time is crucial here as these three solutions need to be implemented before starting work on the KR Puram – Hebbal Metro Line. “We suspect that there is no real intent in undertaking the three solutions. Our suspicions have been strengthened by a recent statement of the Embassy Group to a newspaper, suggesting falsely that work on the ramps can only be commenced after erection of Metro
Pillars and land acquisition,” says M Ibrahim of Nagawara Residents Welfare Association. “Since this is contrary to the BBMP Chief Engineer’s observations and directives, we believe that certain malafide intentions are at play in order to delay or deny the three solutions to the residents.” The residents have also petitioned local MP Sadananda Gowda to resolve the impasse. “This project seems to be doomed to become an example of a ‘lethargic bureaucracy’ towing the line of a ‘penny wise pound foolish’ corporate body utilising tax payers’ money to create problems for the citizenry,” says Bhanu KD of Veerannapalya Residents Welfare Association.