‘Save Sankey’ protest grows louder; state govt urged to scrap road project

According to Citizens for Sankey, 91% of residents in Sadashivnagar have voted against the project, and 4,000 students in the area have written postcards to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, requesting him to stop the project

The proposed plan to widen the Sankey Tank Bund Road and construct a flyover in Bengaluru has drawn the ire of urban experts and citizens in the past few weeks, with nearly 200 residents, all dressed in black, walking together at Sankey Tank in protest against the project on Sunday morning.

Nearly 200 residents, dressed in black, walked together at Sankey Tank on Sunday morning in protest against the road widening and flyover project. (HT Photo)

The residents from ages 2 to 90 held the protest, all in agreement that citizens deserve better thought-out solutions to address the city’s traffic issues. The residents reiterated that the Sankey Tank Lake would be severely impacted by the flyover and road widening project. They said that all the trees on the lake bund would be felled, drastically impacting the ecology of the lake, which has also come under fire from residents for being concretised by authorities.

Residents of Malleshwaram, Vyalikaval and Sadashivanagar, many of whom are part of the residents’ collective ‘Citizens for Sankey’, have been protesting for weeks against the proposed widening of Sankey Tank Bund Road and the flyover from T Chowdaiah Road to 18th Cross in the city.

According to Citizens for Sankey, 91% of residents in Sadashivnagar have voted against the project, and 4,000 students in the area have written postcards to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, requesting him to stop the project. More than 1,000 citizens also have written in objections to the forest department, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), objecting to the felling of the trees, with over 27,000 people signing a petition against the project.

“Citizens of Malleshwaram keep making the point that the options given for cutting trees are not viable for Malleshwaram. The fact is that these are heritage trees that have been around for hundreds of years, and to just cut them for a service road is not something that resonates well with the residents here. The staggering amount of loss of foliage we have had, more than 98% of Bengaluru’s green cover has gone,” Vasundhara Das, a Malleshwaram resident, said.

“Sankey Tank is our lung space, our peace and tranquillity retreat. I am here to do my bit and make more people aware of the seriousness of this flyover and road widening issue,” Madhusudhan, a resident of Sadashivnagar, said. Another resident of Sadashivnagar, Shweta, said the state government needs to look for urban mobility solutions and not restrict itself to providing short-term solutions for only moving vehicles from 18th cross across Bhashyam circle. “We need provisions to be made to encourage and facilitate all modes of commuting.”

The Sankey Tank bund road widening project was first proposed in 2011, and there was widespread agitation by residents and activists who approached Karnataka High Court. After being delayed for several years, it was authorised by the Karnataka high court in 2011. The court ruled that the project was for the public good and must proceed with proper steps to follow the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act.

The BBMP revived the controversial project of widening the 1.1 km road between Bhashyam Circle and Malleswaram 18th Cross in December last year. To ease the traffic in the region, it also wants to build a 560-metre-long, four-lane flyover along the road that links central and northern Bengaluru with 7.5 m carriageways on either side of the median.

“I am a resident of Malleshwaram. I cannot imagine the 55 Heritage trees cut down to make way for cars. So, I joined the walkers at Sankey today in a peaceful celebration of what the trees give us. The flyover and widening the road at Sankey are not the right solutions for our congestion problems,” Vinuta said.

Residents living close to Sankey Tank said they were not consulted about the project before BBMP floated tenders. They sought a detailed project report (DPR) to be made public and organise a public consultation before taking up the project.

“The residents urge the BBMP and other decision-makers to hold a series of public consultations and to identify alternative solutions to the flyover that prioritise the interest of the people and the environment. While the BBMP states this project is sitting with BMLTA, less than a week ago, this project was sent to the Forest Department for approval for tree cutting. This indicates that they intend to continue with this project. Our advocacy will continue until our concerns are addressed, and this project is stopped,” Kimsuka, who is part of Citizens for Sankey, said.