Bengaluru: It is hanging in the air, literally. Residents of Hennur and surrounding areas and commuters have been waiting for a long time for a flyover to be completed to enable smooth and traffic free travelling.
But the dream of commuting on the flyover bypassing the busy Outer Ring Road which intersects Hennur and Lingarjapuram has become a distant dream. Repeated requests by the residents and former corporator Padmanabha Reddy to complete the project and to fix the road beneath have fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Reddy told Deccan Chronicle that the flyover project has hit a deadend because of the legal conflicts over land acquisition. The project was conceived in 2010 for a signal-free ride cutting across busy Outer Ring Road near Hennur.
Nagarjuna Construction Company was handed over the project. But the construction work stopped over one-and-a-half years ago. Adding to the misery, the new land acquisition policy has made it difficult for the BDA to acquire land, he said.
“The BDA, which has implemented several projects across the city, should get its basics right. Why did it not acquire land before commissioning the project? When authorities change the plan midway and decide to acquire more land, it gives a free hand for landholders to put brakes on the project,” he said.
Hennur residents claimed that the construction has stopped because of a dispute over acquiring the land belonging to a 30-year-old Veeranjanaya temple that comes in the the path of the flyover.
“The incomplete flyover is leading to traffic chaos under it. The construction has stopped and the pillars have taken a lot of road space. It was a wide road earlier, but it has been narrowed because of the flyover,” said Mr Satish K., an area resident. BDA official P.N. Nayak said that acquisition of temple property and the new land acquisition policy have stalled the project. “Talks are on with landowners and BDA land acquisition authorities. It would be resolved soon,” he said.
