Residents spend own money to keep Bengaluru’s Jalahalli road usable during monsoon

Bengaluru: Residents of a large apartment complex in Jalahalli East have been pooling in money every year to keep a 100-metre stretch of road usable during monsoon. Reason: The city corporation or elected representatives haven’t been able to provide a lasting solution.

Residents of Shriram Sameeksha apartment complex, which has over 1,000 homes, said they spend around Rs 80,000 annually to lay jelly stones on the stretch connecting Gangamma Gudi Police Station Road and Kuvempunagar.

According to residents, repeated appeals to civic authorities and elected representatives across party lines failed to resolve the issue. “We gave a written representation and authorities also visited the spot. But there has been no solution,” said Unni Krishnan Menon, a retired navy veteran and resident of the apartment complex.

“Since the road is undeveloped, the surrounding space has become a dumpyard. There is another menace of drug addicts using the stretch for their activities,” said resident Vivek Balaji.

Residents said an ongoing land litigation has prevented govt agencies from taking up permanent development works. The issue has also affected the locality’s access to drinking water connections and BMTC bus services.

“The stretch has been used as a connecting road for over 10 years now, but it remains unsafe for commuters. There have been many incidents of people falling and getting injured here. Our request is to make the road safe at least till the legal issues are resolved,” said Natesh Muthanna, secretary of Shriram Sameeksha Apartment Owners’ Association.

Bengaluru North City Corporation’s executive engineer Nagappa Kamati said several attempts were made by former corporators to get clearance by convincing the title holder of the land so that a road could be developed. “We can asphalt the stretch once we get clearance,” he added.