The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Road users affected as Bazaar Street is dug up again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 12, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Road users affected as Bazaar Street is dug up again

This time it is BESCOM for laying cables BMP says once the power supply company completes its work and pays the necessary charges, the dug up portions will be levelled and asphalted.

TRAFFIC STOPPER: It takes nearly 45 minutes to pass through Bazaar Street in Ulsoor in Bangalore during peak hour traffic. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Six months after another utility agency conducted excavations, Ulsoor Bazaar Street had been dug up again. This time it is by Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM).

According to the shopkeepers on the street, the digging took place last weekend for laying cables. The rain since then has turned the dug up space muddy and this means the entire stretch of road of about 400 metres has become really narrow.

The owner of a medical shop, Mahaveer, said the dug up trenches were fast getting filled with rainwater and mosquitoes had multiplied.

An elderly woman going to the Someswara Temple nearby slipped and fell into one of the dug portions and was injured, he said.

The street has several small shops selling everything from footwear and readymade garments to kitchen utensils. Towards the Cambridge Road end there are jewellery showrooms that are now packed because of the Akshaya Tritiya. Hari, who manages a readymade garments shop, said no more roadside display of dresses was possible because of the dust raised by passing vehicles.

Kashi Vishwanath, who runs a tailoring material shop, said the practice of shopkeepers parking their two-wheelers on the roadside had made passage of vehicles difficult on the road.

An arterial road

Bazaar Street has become an arterial avenue of sorts for people driving to Cambridge Layout, Indiranagar and HAL extensions because of the one-way rules from Trinity Circle and on other roads in the vicinity. This means a steady flow of vehicles during rush hours and also late into the night. As two-wheelers are parked practically on the entire stretch of the road there is precious little space for driving by at the best of times. The situation is worse now even for two-wheeler drivers.

Earlier, the footpaths were filled with displays of merchandise and had become narrow for pedestrians to walk on. Now pedestrians cannot even walk on the road because of the trenches. The constant digging up of the road has come in handy for rodents who have tunnelled all around, according to some shop owners.

According to the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, once the power supply company completes its work and pays the necessary charges, the dug up portions will be levelled and asphalted again. This will have to happen soon with the monsoon just weeks away.

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