BENGALURU: A symbiotic relationship exists between motorists and villagers along the Bengaluru-Mysuru Road, but this is now under threat with the 10-lane highway coming up between the two cities, warned JDS MLA DC Thammanna. A former engineer, Thammanna has shot off a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai saying that the 139-km stretch of the lane serves as a lifeline for around 200 villages and many towns.
He said many eateries run their businesses along the road, with each of them employing about 50 people, most of whom are local villagers. About 20,000 jobs have been created because of this road directly or indirectly. Many of them benefited by supplying vegetables, fruits, milk and other essentials to the eateries. Educated unemployed villagers found jobs in the eateries, garment units and manufacturing centres on the way, he said.
There are also many farmers and land owners who benefited from the spike in real estate value which gave them rental incomes and high value in case of outright sale. Thammanna warned that the decision to barricade the highway and make it a single entry exit from Bengaluru to Mysuru could be life threatening to the hundereds of small businesses along the way, including petrol bunks.
In the letter, he questioned the CM if the 10 lane-widening of the highway will turn out to be a blessing or a curse for so many people. He reminded that it was a single road which was widened and made a double road during the time of the late Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV through the services of Sir M Visvesvaraya who was his minister and who served the state for about 80 years. In his five-page letter, Thammanna also highlighted the structural defects in the road project.