Goodshed Road Widened by 20 Feet

Commuters using Goodshed Road near Majestic may now face fewer traffic jams as BBMP has provided a free left turn by acquiring a nearby 20-ft property and widening the road.

Mayor B S Sathyanarayana posted the photographs of demolition of the property and widening of the road on Saturday night on his Facebook page.

Terming this as one of the ‘great achievements of Katte Sathya’, he posted: “Goodshed Road is one of the major roads in Bangalore which used to face too much traffic congestion from many years. The actual operation started from last September 2013 (the day I was sworn in as the Mayor) after several meetings. Finally, we have demolished a part of the building last night which will give nearly 70 per cent free traffic flow from south to west and north of Bangalore.”

It took three months for BBMP to convince land owners Subbaiah Shetty and sons to part with the property for a public cause, sources said.

Superintending Engineer  K T Nagaraj told Express, “BBMP gave transfer of development rights (TDR) to the owners which is 1.5 times the value of the property. As per the (property) owner’s demand, we have also included a condition in the agreement that the TDR will be increased as and when it is revised by the BBMP.”

The width of the road has now been increased by 6 metres. Subbaiah Shetty and sons were the legal rights holders of this open land. It was leased out to another person who had sub-leased it. Now, a private hotel is being operated from the property.

“In order to increase the road length, illegal hoardings had to be removed from the area. BBMP officials took police to the site and got them removed. Though there were some objections from the hotel owner, the police ensured that BBMP gets its job done peacefully,” Nagaraj added.

BBMP officials said the civic body is also in the process of taking over a piece of land belonging to the same owners where seven sheds have been put up.

“Apart from TDR to the land owners, compensation will be provided to occupants who have put up makeshift homes on the land,” he said.

Sathyanarayana noted that traffic bottlenecks in Majestic area will ease because of this road widening. “Initially, the land owners were not willing to part with the property at all. But we persuaded them. We did this keeping public interest in mind,” he said.