BANGALORE: The High Court on Wednesday vacated the interim stay which had stopped the 9.7-km Sirsi Circle-Agara Signal-free Corridor Project and directed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to go ahead with the project.
Citizen Action Forum, Koramangala Residents’ Welfare Association and four other associations had filed a PIL contending that the `119 crore project would only benefit builders and developers, not the people. “It is not the BDA, but the contractors who are interested in the project which has been taken up without a detailed project or feasibility report, will be benefited,” the counsel for the petitioners told the court.
The counsel for BDA claimed that neither builders nor the developers were doing the project on their own. The BDA has given contract to Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) Ltd on June 27, 2011 for the construction of the signal-free corridor project from Agara to Sirsi Circle via Lalbagh with four junctions - Jakkasandra (fly-over), Koramangala 80-feet road (underpass), Krupanidhi College (underpass) and St John’s Hospital-Koramangala 100-feet road junction (fly-over and underpass). Each grade separator will come up at a cost of `20 to 29 crore and the total project cost is estimated to be around `119 crore, he informed the court.
He further produced the contract copy of the project and said that by laying the signal-free road on this stretch, the traffic problems will be solved saving time for the public.
Hearing the petition, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna, directed the BDA to go ahead with the construction and adjourned the matter for further hearing on the case.