Despite repeated complaints by residents, roads in K Narayanapura from Hennur Bagalur Main Road till Hanumantha Gowda Circle are in a pitiable and bad condition. The roads in K Narayanpura (Horamavu ward) starting from Hennur Bagalur Main Road till Hanumantha Gowda Circle (Cauvery Bakery junction) have been dug for over 3 years now and are in a pitiable and bad condition. This includes all the Main and Cross roads via Kristu Jayanti College, Brigade Altamont Apartment, Wisdom Tree Apartment, Golden Palm Apartment and Cross Roads leading to Ferns Residency Layout which has nearly 6 layouts and 6 apartment complexes.
Residents from the abovementioned layouts & apartment complexes have been continuously raising these issues with BBMP through the Ward Committee (earlier chaired by the Corporator and now by the Nodal Officer), as well as with the Joint Commissioner and BBMP Commissioner. However, this has not been addressed yet leading to a high level of anger and frustration among the residents of the area.
According to Sunil Thomas, resident of Brigade Altamont, ”Residents of Horamavu and Hennur areas are facing constant challenges with very bad and poor condition of the roads and cross roads, resulting in people falling and sustaining injuries. Autos, cabs, maids and pourakarmikas refuse to come citing the poor road conditions. People cannot even cycle and have to push cycles for about one and a half kms.”
Anshuman Kaushik, resident of Golden Palm Apartment, said, “The reason for such road conditions is the unending work on the roads by Internet service providers like Jio & Airtel as well as utilities like BESCOM, BWSSB, UGD, GAIL who have been digging up the roads over the last three years. There is no coordination and each blames BBMP for not giving them a closure.”
Manjiri Bhat, resident of Wisdom Tree Apartment, said, “The erstwhile Corporator and Ward Committee had refused to take up this issue over the last few years. After the Nodal Officer was appointed in September 2020, pursuant to the term of the BBMP Council & Corporator coming to an end, residents have been running from pillar to post to be heard and for the issue to be resolved by the responsible office personnel. However, nothing has moved, with only more excuses of unrelated pending works and lack of funds being cited.”
Data from the BNP Citizen Portal shows that the BBMP Council has approved 563 projects worth about ₹373 cr for the Horamavu ward over the last 5 years. Majority of these projects relate to roads, however the roads continue to be in horrible shape. It is very clear that the money allocated for these projects are not reaching the ground. It is time for citizens to unite and raise their voice against this continued inefficiency and corruption within BBMP.
With the issue continuing to be unresolved, the residents of Horamavu will be holding a “Silent March Chain” protesting against the continued apathy of BBMP and its officials. It is pertinent to note that in 2012, citizens of the area had organized silent rallies protesting against the quality of roads in which hundreds of residents had participated. The Joint Commissioner and the then Corporator had immediately undertaken the work based on public pressure.
