Work has come to halt on the city's ambitious project
With Mysore Dasara fast approaching and the city sporting a heritage tag, the number of tourists visiting the city to witness the Nada Habba has been steadily on the rise year after year. But is the city geared up for hosting this annual event. All repair works that are being undertaken are going on in a snail's pace and neither the City Corporation nor the District Administration seem to be worried.
It was during last year's Dasara that the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) had prepared an ambitious project to develop the stretch of four kilometer road between Hardinge Circle and Bannimantap to be converted into a 'Raja Marga' (Royal Path) and took up the road widening work in Bannimantap, but with another Dasara fast approaching the work on the road is far from completion. They have not even bothered to clear the heap of debris lying on the side of the road for over an year.
`To make Raja Marga, road widening work began last year. But the officials have neither completed the road nor have cleared the debris. During night the commuters have to step very carefully. Specially if they are accompanied with children its more dangerous,' says Lakshmi an employee.
No 'Raja Marga' for this Dasara: Raikar
Though work on the Raja Marga between Hardinge and Chamaraja Circles has been going on for the past several months, the work has not been completed for this year Dasara.
District in-charge Minister SA Ramdas had announced completion of Raja marga connection Chamraja circle and Hoarding circle before dasara nothing concrete has taken shape to keep up the assurance . There are no proper parking facilities for the tourists coming in their own vehicles or hired buses as the proposed parking lots at several places in the city are still on the drawing board.
When Express contacted City Commissioner Commissioner KS Raikar, he said that during Dasara portion of Raja Marga will be kept open for commuters. He further added that the present design for the stone barricade is expensive and the Corporation is trying to find other companies to get done the work.
`To make Raja Marge before Dasara, all traffic was diverted resulting in lot of hardship for the commuters. If the work has not complete means that all the time and money spent on working on this road in addition to the fuel lost while commuters had to take circuitous routes to reach their destinations has all gone waste,' says Auto Drivers Venkatesh and Mahadevappa.
'Knowing their responsibilities the concerned authorities should work for the development of city, but the civic authorities are only worried about getting awards. Not a single road in the city is in good condition. The authorities have failed to maintain good road at least in Dasara Procession route, said Senior Citizen Govindappa.
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Bicycle track before Dasara
In a bid to keep heart of the city free of pollution and reduce the traffic density, plans have been from JNNURM Task Force to introduce Cycle Track in the Heritage Zone before this Dasara. The Cycle Track will pass through the 30 heritage buildings including the Amba Vilas Palace.
Urban Development Department Secretary Shivakumar said that Bicycle Path in city will be a pilot project and the paths have been divided into three classes like Bike Path, Bike Lane and Bike Route.
Bike Path will be Completely separate from traffic, while in Bike Lane a separate lane will be set aside and in Bike Route purportedly city streets will be connected from one place to another.
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