Smart City works: Avenue Rd in chaos

By Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: For the businessmen on Avenue Road, the development works undertaken by Bengaluru Smart City Limited has thrown life out of gear. Though the deadline to complete the work on the 1.80-km long road got over five months ago, the agency seems to be in no hurry.

The development of Avenue Road was taken up in January with much fanfare. The work was supposed to be completed by October 2021, but later the deadline was extended to December and again to March 2022. The footpaths are yet to be constructed.

On Thursday, rain water entered a few shops causing inconvenience to the businessmen. “Luckily I was in my shop when it rained heavily on Thursday. I was shocked to see rain water entering my shop. I immediately advised my employees to make way for water to flow onto the road. It avoided damage to the goods worth thousands of rupees,” said a businessman.

He said that he informed the BSCL engineer to send the contractor and his men to the spot for the benefit of other businessmen, but in vain. “They assured to visit the spot but did not turn up. Finally, I engaged a mason and labourers to increase the height of the platform in front of my shop to prevent rain water from entering the shop,’’ he said.

Many pedestrians, especially senior citizens, have been facing a lot of inconvenience due to lack of footpaths on Avenue Road. The BSCL has to develop footpaths on both sides of the road for the benefit of pedestrians, but the work remains incomplete.

Coming down heavily on the BSCL authorities for not completing the work on time, T Gopal, a social activist, has opined that the BSCL authorities have no commitment to complete the work. “I have complained to the BSCL authorities about the incompleteness of the footpath and its adverse impact on shops and business establishments on Avenue Road but nothing has been done. I have also complained to the Bescom authorities about the need to install street lights on this road,” said Gopal. 

Meanwhile, BSCL Chief Engineer Vinayak Suguar has said the footpath work was supposed to be completed by March but got delayed. “All the pending works, including the footpath works, will be completed by this month end,” he said.