Residents of Varthur are opposing the ₹482 crore flyover being built by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) from Varthur lake bund to Vishal Mart. They argue that the flyover will only service a few new apartments and not all citizens in general.
“The flyover will not benefit the 20,000 villagers in Varthur. It will hamper trade activities, land value, and the ancient history of Varthur and it will also act as an obstruction to the chariot procession of Chennarayaswamy fair. We can also not dream of the metro and it will make development difficult in the neighbouring villages of Valepura, Matsandra, and others,” the Varthur Citizens’ Welfare Forum said in a press release.
The residents argue that Varthur main road should be widened with the allocated money instead of constructing an elevated corridor. They say that instead, underpasses should be constructed from Varthur High School and Varthur police station to connect to Balagare road to solve the traffic bottleneck in the area.
“There are high-rise apartments coming up here and a large part of the IT crowd is moving into this area. There are no basic amenities like drinking water, street lights, or stormwater drains at many places in Varthur. Instead of providing such things, the government is planning to build a flyover which will do harm than good. They have also not taken inputs from all the stakeholders involved,” said Jagadish Reddy Nagappa of Varthur Rising.
The KRDCL however, says that the elevated corridor will become a part of a wide flyover network which is being constructed across the city to provide traffic relief. “The two-lane Varthur main road is being widened to a 25-meter six-lane road. The elevated corridor will become a four-lane road. We have designed the plan in such a way that the chariot procession will also get more space on the road. With more citizens occupying the apartment complexes in the locality, without the flyover, traffic density will drastically increase in the upcoming days”, said R. Prasad, Chief Engineer, KRDCL.
The residents’ group has started a petition to bring the government’s attention to their problems. A member of the group also said that they will meet the Chief Minister, if need be, to stop the project.
