South Bangalore happenings
Metro work, road-widening, underpass construction and new Corporators were the most prominent happenings of Jayanagar, JP Nagar and BTM Layout this year. In June, the Karnataka High Court disposed a writ petition relating to the construction of the station at South End, Jayanagar, Bangalore, giving the project a shot in the arm. Residents of south Bangalore came together to form the Ring Road Property Owner’s Association (RRPOA) to fight against road-widening. They were protesting BBMP’s road-widening plans from Central Silk Board to Mysore Road (14.5 kms). This was one of the first instances of a citizen’s collective against road-widening.
In September, L&T South City, a premium apartment conclave came under litigation as apartment owners filed cases against the developer and land owners for not disclosing of relinquishment deed before the sale. The owner of the land had relinquished 12 acres of land in 1996 to the BDA. In December, they filed another case against BDA and got a stay against tender notices that BDA floated to build a shopping complex in the disputed land.
In October, Puttenahalli Lake finally filled up due to the efforts of some residents of JP Nagar. The task took months, good rains and a key inlet being opened up helped the matter. The Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT) is working on bringing back the greenery around the lake too.
The much-delayed underpass at Puttenahalli has been completed is open for trial-runs. The underpass built at a cost of Rs 23 crore was to be complete in ten months when construction began in May 2008 but was delayed severely.
Metro Phase II has been approved and the Jayanagar line will go till Sarakki Lake station. Another metro line from Nagavara to Gottigere was also approved. The NICE dispute at Gottigere was finally resolved. The SC gave its nod for the work over the Gottigere Lake to be completed.
This year also saw BBMP elections finally happen. Manjunath Reddy (Cong) from Madiwala, G N R Babu (Cong) from BTM Layout, N Chandrashekar Raju (BJP) from JP Nagar, S K Nataraj (BJP) from Sarakki and L Ramesh (BJP) from Puttenahalli are the corporators of your area. How often have you interacted with them, since the elections?
JANUARY
- ABIDe’s Plan Bengaluru 2020 released.
- 9.5 km long elevated highway on Hosur Road opens.
FEBRUARY
- Nine people die and 70 injured as fire breaks out in Carlton Towers.
- BBMP’s midnight tender awarding becomes controversial, projects worth Rs 3,428 crore were processed two days before the model code of conduct took effect for the BBMP elections.
MARCH
- Self-styled god man Swami Nithyananda’s sex-scandal expose on video
APRIL
- BJP wins 103 of 198 seats in the BBMP elections. 15 injured in two explosions near Chinnaswamy stadium. BWSSB hikes tariff.
MAY
- A bullet grazes a devotee of the Art of Living ashram leading to speculation about assassination attempts on Sri Sri Ravishankar . It was later found the bullet was actually fired by a nearby farmer to scare stray dogs.
- BWSSB deadline for buildings to implement Rainwater Harvesting.
JUNE
- High Court clears way for War memorial to be built at Indira Gandhi musical fountain park.
- Government Veterinary College wall on Bellary Road collapses killing 17-yearold Sanjana, Lokayukta later holds Yeshwanthpur corporator Munirathna Naidu, who had allegedly built the poor
- quality wall. But BBMP later claimed they had no records to show he had built it.
JULY
- British PM David Cameron kickstarts India tour in Bangalore. Visits Infosys and HAL
AUGUST
- 25 people die in five days at the Beggars’ Rehabilitation Centre near Sumanahalli on Magadi Road due to gastroenteritis
SEPTEMBER
- Actor and TV serial director Vaishali Kasaravalli passes away.
OCTOBER
- Cab driver Shiva Kumar sentenced life-term for the rape and murder of 28-year-old BPO employee Pratibha Srikanthamurthy.
NOVEMBER
- 14-year-old Allan Bazarra falls off the terrace in his apartment building while playing and dies.
DECEMBER
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Bangalore.
- Metro rail completes its first test run. Proposed plan for road through GKVK dropped after protests.
- Bangalorean model Nicole Faria wins Miss Earth pageant.