koramangala

For about six years, Koramangala residents have been waiting for a new road - a shortcut - that connects Ejipura junction on the Intermediate Ring Road, with Agara on Outer Ring Road. Though there has been progress in the plan to connect the two arterial roads, residents will have to wait longer for the work to start. The project has been delayed since sections of the road are to pass through defence land. In August 2018, months before the Lok Sabha elections, former Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman agreed to part with 16.5 acres of defence land for 10 projects across…

A well-known architect and town planner recently commented on a WhatsApp group that the whole of Bengaluru had become one construction site - with Koramangala being the epicentre - resulting in the city's livability index being at its lowest ever. If you live in Koramangala, it is hard to not notice all the development projects that are going on. You have the Ejipura - Kendriya Sadan flyover, the Maharaja Bridge, BWSSB's 6ft-diameter sewage pipeline project, BBMP's flood mitigation project, white-topping of roads all over (of course, to be dug up just days later to lay utility lines). [flexiblemap src="http://data.opencity.in/Data/Bengaluru-Koramangala-Development-projects-2019.kml" width="100%"…

One fine morning around mid-March, we, the residents of ST Bed Layout in Koramangala, suddenly found the Maharaja Junction bridge, our main link to the outside world, demolished. On asking around, we were given all kinds of reasons, none of which seemed to justify the demolition. The bridge, which covered a major storm water drain (SWD)/rajakaluve, used to be in good condition. However, we were told that a new bridge was being built, and that it would be completed in around 45 days. We saw a lot of construction activity around the area, and hoped that BBMP would complete the…

Independence Day 2017 turned out to be a bright, sunny, yet cool, day – a typical Bengaluru day, it would appear.  Yet, that morning we woke up to a rapidly flowing river outside our house that had completely submerged the main road leading into S.T. Bed Layout, Koramangala. A few hapless souls could be seen wading against the tide in at least a foot of water. Our compound was flooded, too. And murky water had entered many houses in more low-lying parts of the neighbourhood. A walk around the area a little before noon on Tuesday revealed that some roads…

Early in the morning, around 7.30 a.m., on 18 January 2013, BBMP officials, bulldozers, a demolition crew, and a police force consisting of approximately 500 policemen and 20 policewomen reached the EWS housing settlement. When residents tried to resist the demolition, they were subjected to violence. The police arrested 21 women dragging them into their vans, some of them by their hair. They were taken to two police stations, implicated on false charges, and detained overnight. Residents reported that the BBMP Commissioner had assured them that evictions would not begin until the end of the academic year (April). But this…

In the previous story of the series on Ejipura housing project for Economically Weaker Sections, critical issues in the project implementation and how the developer considers all those issues as trivial were covered. This story will tell you how the BBMP has goofed up with the concession agreement of the project and why it might lead to a conflict between the two parties. In 2012, soon after the BBMP and Maverick’s plan to build EWS quarters in Ejipura under public-private partnership (PPP) model gained focus, several individuals and organisations opposed the arrangement of using the land meant for EWS families…

In the first and second part of the series we explained how the concept of PPP model for Ejipura EWS quarters evolved and the reasons for the delay in implementation. This part will explore the nitty-gritty of project plan sanction. Why did the BBMP give plan sanction only for half segment of the project but has refused to approve other half of the project that comprises commercial establishment to be shared between the City Corporation and Maverick Holdings? When on May 31st, 2017, the High Court passed an order directing Maverick Holdings - the project proponent of Ejipura EWS quarters…

In the previous story, Garuda Group Managing Director Uday B Garudachar shared his version of the story about Ejipura EWS quarters project. The second part of the series, brings out the chronology of events that happened in connection to the project and where it stands as on today. In January 2013, the world came crashing down for over 900 families that were living in the Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters near Koramangala, when the BBMP along with the building giant Maverick Holdings began to evict the poor families, to make way for new EWS quarters. It has been over…

In January 2013, over 5,000- residents were evicted from the EWS quarters in Ejipura near Koramangala in South Bengaluru. The eviction was to facilitate BBMP’s new plan -- a developer, Maverick Holdings would construct new EWS quarters for the 1,512 families who were residing in the quarters. It has been five years since the eviction took place. In this series, Citizen Matters will bring to you a reality check on the developments in the project, what the evicted families are up to and what went wrong in implementation. In the first part, we hear from Uday B Garudachar, developer and Managing…

A huge commercial advertisement hoarding towering above the Adugodi police quarters in Koramangala features in the list of unauthorised advertisement hoardings prepared by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Questions may naturally be raised over why this was not torn down by the BBMP when it initiated its drive against illegal advertisement hoardings in the city. But, in fact, it was. During one such drive, BBMP staff under the supervision of the Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO) of Koramangala had removed the advertisement display of the commercial hoarding in Adugodi recently. But in less than a week’s time of removing it,…