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.