Palace Grounds stretch to widen, 58 trees felled in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The nearly 600-metre stretch between Cauvery Theatre junction and near Mehkri Circle on Kempegowda International Airport Road, which had remained a major bottleneck for years, is all set to be widened.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike on Friday evening started axing 58 trees to increase the width of the carriageway.
The stretch, which connects north Bengaluru with central areas of the city, is chock-a-block with traffic during peak hours as it converts a four-lane road on one side into a two-lane. The road-widening issue, which had been pending before the high court following opposition to chopping of trees, received a green signal recently.
BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said: "We will start and complete road-widening work at the earliest."
The Palike received a shot in the arm after the high court okayed its proposal to widen the road. BBMP's deputy conservator of forests issued a public notice on axing of 58 trees and sought public objections/suggestions. But the agency said there was no overwhelming response.
On Friday, BBMP officials and traffic police cordoned off the road for some time and axed a few trees. With videos of the tree-chopping exercise going viral on social media platforms, many residents were up in arms. While a few slammed the civic agency for destroying green cover, others wondered why the trees were not translocated.
One section justified the move in order to decongest the road: "Road expansion was long-pending; the stretch is too narrow to handle traffic. Allow the widening work to happen."
A few motorists maintained it might not solve the traffic problem completely and only push the bottleneck to a different location on the same road. However, BBMP officers said: "This stretch should have been widened at least a decade ago. Now with KIA expanding and seeing a spike in traffic, there is no point in wasting time further."