Road Widening Hits Road Block - PIL
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Naveen - 31 May, 2008
| Bangalore
| CDP
| BBMP
| Road Works
| PIL
| Road widening
| Media Reports
| Transportation
| Infrastructure
| Hasiru Usiru
Karnataka High Court admits PIL against Road Widening Projects in Bangalore
Issues emergent notices to Respondents
Mr. Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Mr. Justice A. N. Venugopal Gowda, constituting the Division Bench of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka, today admitted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Environment Support Group and others against the ongoing irrational road widening projects of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP – Corporation of the City of Greater Bangalore). Appreciating the urgency for considering the need to protect avenue trees from needless felling and safeguarding various rights and priveleges of pedestrians, street vendors, etc., the Hon'ble Judges issued emergent notices to the Respondents while also allowing for serving of hand summons.
The PIL challenges BBMP's ongoing project of widening 91 roads (a number likely to increase) in Bangalore, running into a length of about 400 kms. across the length and breadth of the old city areas. This mega project is predicated on the premise that it would result in improved flow of traffic and reduce congestion. However, no evidence has been presented to prove that the result of widening would actually achieve these objectives. In contrast to the approach adopted by BBMP, experience from densely populated and leading cities from across the world prove that widening of roads is not the solution for easing traffic congestion. Instead intelligent design approaches, responsive (rather than reactionary) traffic management, enhancement of public transport, improvement in pedestrian zones, protection of livelihoods of vendors, and discouraging personalised modes of transport have successfully addressed the most serious traffic congestion problems of mega cities. Such approaches have also enabled the protection of cultural heritage, public spaces and urban greenery, significantly enhancing the environmental quality of urban areas.
The PIL makes a strong case against tree felling as the first step to road widening by demonstrating that the work undertaken by BBMP in several roads has proved unsuccessful in reducing traffic congestion. The Petitioners submit that the actions of the Tree Officer in authorising the felling of hundreds of avenue trees violate various provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, and is admittedly an action taken under duress. In most cases where hundreds of really old avenue trees have been felled, the stated object of widening has not been achieved even after years, as various utilities have not shifted out of the proposed right of way, or such spaces have been encroached by places of worship.
The PIL relies heavily on the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, the National Urban Transport Policy and a variety of circulars issued by the Union Urban Development Secretary that argue for a rational and intelligent approach to managing congestion in urban areas. In particular, it makes a case that the object of all travel is to ensure people move across cities in safety and comfort, thus necessitating privileges to pedestrian movement, non-motorised forms of transport and public transport. Contrarily, the BBMP's approach seems to arrogate a right for the private motor car over all other modes of travel, thereby extinguishing many fundamental rights, while also exposing the public at large to great discomfort and even harm.
The PIL presents a variety of evidence to argue that the road widening programme is illegal as it has skirted fundamental public consultation processes required per the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. In addition the draft Comprehensive Development Plan -2005 (CDP) of Bangalore Development Authority, defining land use of the city, did not contain any proposal for widening roads on such a grand scale. Surprisingly, the final CDP – 2007 introduced plans for most inner city roads to be widened without in any manner informing or involving the public, an action that is patently illegal.
The PIL is a result of a long and deliberate series of proactive steps taken by the Petitioners along with Hasiru Usiru, a network of concerned groups and individuals in Bangalore. The Petitioners draw attention to the ruling of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka in 2005 (WP No. 14104/2005) in which the Government was directed to involve the public in decisions relating to road widening and tree felling. It is submitted that despite exhaustive efforts on the part of the Petitioners and Hasiru Usiru urging the Government and its agencies to engage with the public in evolving such schemes, the current road widening project has been rushed through disregarding the directions of the Hon'ble Court. In this context, it is prayed that the Hon'ble Court be pleased to strike down the road widening proposals, and the consequent tree felling orders. In addition, it is prayed that the Govenment be directed to evolve rational road development proposals that met with the highest standards of law, policy and urban planning.
The petitioners Environment Support Group and CIVIC Bangalore were represented by Advocate Mr. Sunil Dutt Yadav and Mr. Leo F. Saldanha, Coordinator, Environment Support Group, appeared in person. A copy of the PIL is accessible online on ESG website.
COMMENTS
Hi All,
I think Praja should engage with Hasiru Usiru & esg & promote better ideas to
tackle congestion with the reformed bus routings that narayan has suggested (TTMC to TTMC or zone to zone), "bus & pedestrians only" in shopping /market areas & BRT concepts, instead of destroying trees, widening roads & worsening the already terrible & chaotic traffic conditions.
The groups taking up the issue against road widening need support & I believe this senseless road widening without a plan for prioritizing public transport will worsen things - praja could provide the inputs on how this can be done.
What are your opinions ?
widening the roads without any measurable expectations is irrational, even more so if it entitles sacrifice of trees (which are a unique marker for the city) and displacement of people.
what internal codes or even IRC codes have been violated that these road widening projects are being taken up? if it is not based on any code, then it is an entirely subjective decision of some city official. how can governmental decisions be taken on such subjective assessments?
meanwhile, even if we are to assume that some codes are being adhered to aksharasa, there are many visible inconsistencies and irrationalities in the existing road network that the city should address first before embarking on road widening. for example, the critical bottlenecks are the intersections and not the midblock width of the road.
vehicles donot reside on midblocks. they travel. however, they are forced to dwell at the intersections because of bad engineering. redesigning the intersection by providing turning lanes will increase the capacity of the road more than increasing the road width mid block.
even if lane discipline is not followed by road users, the majority of the traffic still flows directionally. turn lanes at the intersections can be designed for directionality by matching the road widths instead of lanes.
even at the coarser level of width (as opposed to the finer level of lanes) the roads of the city are badly engineered. it is common to see many of the city's roads mate roads of narrower widths.
unless the city can justify the road widening is based on sound engineering judgment these road widening schemes should not be taken up. just saying there are traffic jams on this road is not sufficient. what is the source of the jams? have all other fundamental issues been adequately and objectively addressed. only if such a claim can be made conclusively should a road be allowed to be considered for widening.
even then, at this stage when bangalore is at the threshold of implementing plans for public transport and at a stage when the integrated transport authority itself is still getting established, the city should avoid shooting from the hip with road expansion plans and instead invest in rationalizing and optimizing the existing road networks.
when there is absolutely no evidence or track record of consistent, sound road and traffic engineering judgment by the city, on what basis is the city going about demolishing its unique cultural and geographic markers?
unless the city is absolutely sure that its current roads have been optimally utilized, on what basis is it embarking on broadening the road network? when there is hardly any consistent good road engineering judgment that is visible, how can the city guarantee the optimality of the road network usage and on what basis does it expect its citizens to support its plans? and why should the citizens think of it as anything other than a wider display of hubris and incompetency?
Corporators and MLAs simply put their agenda as road widening and at the cost of trees and even houses without thinking what is the bottleneck now, what is the root cause and how it can be eliminated.
Root cause is the increase in the number of cars and bad driving habits. Solution needs to be found out for that rather than widened roads which again will be occupied by cars. Width of the traffic will increase and length will decrease.
There are ofcourse very narrow roads in some places, but, oneway and preventing HTV traffic there is the only answer. And few needs to be made pedestrain/cycle only zone such as Avenue road. Goods to be transferred to the shops needs to be transported by cycles as it was done in older days instead of bringing trucks or Goods Auto inside the Avenue road.
Elimination can be done by developing effective public transit and peenalizing for using cars especially wide cars and SUVs.
Absolutely right, & a great assessment, TS.
BBMP's solution so far to tackle congestion has only been widening roads, without care & thought for heritage values & the common folks - provision for movement of private vehicles has all along been taking unduly greater importance whilst ignoring & harming all others.
Well, not surprisingly, our short-sighted administrators should be enlightened as to how important it is for us to retain our trees for future generations and to protect the climate which Bangalore was once renowned for.
May I suggest that we collate all the material that we have been discussing here, viz -
1. Focus on Mass transportation, get more people out of their cars
2. Planning of Bus Stops at proper locations
3. Improve and make BMTC efficient using TTMC model etc
4. Reclaim side lanes abutting footpaths by making them usable
5. Strict enforcement of Lane discipline and other traffic rules, more powers to Traffic police, re-org traffic dept. etc
6. Pedestrian Skywalks can prevent jaywalking and disturbing traffic flow
7. Improving Intersections thru' redesign and signal-free corridors
Then we prepare a draft of the multi-pronged approach and present it to different bodies such as BBMP, BDA, BMTC, Forest Dept., KSPCB etc.
I am sure someone out there in those agencies is thinking about this, but since this is a long tem solution and will take time to show results and maybe even span multiple governments in power, no one wants to implement it.
It is imperative to resist local MLA's, corportators and administrators desires to use funds for mindless road-widening.
Let ESG and Mr. Saldhana use PIL while we could use less confronting ways to convince them about what is right and what is not.
I beg to disagree. The response of atleast one of NGO/Promoter of it! was doubtful in the Valley School Episode (Refer http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/20/stories/2008022060670400.htm). For the argument sake let us agree there was no encroachment, but isn't it the responsibility of the school authority/management to follow the rule of the land like not stocking sandal woods(conserved tree), not using it for teaching sculpture etc? I had been travelling through Indira Nagar 100 Ft road for last 3 years, had observed the transition of this area to a commercial zone from a quiet residential zone. Several trees were cut while converting these building to commercial one. I never saw a protest/complaint/PIL against these private interests. I fear PILs/NGOs are facades of public interests to save private interests as in case of CMH Road Traders Vs Metro. It was exposed to an extend during Koramangala demolitions as well. Is it the responsibility of BBMP alone to plant trees, that too just on the roads? Don't you think a plot owner building a 4000+sqft building on a 2000sqft area, without following the mandatory setbacks/open space/FSI is doing greater damage to evironment/supporting infrastructure etc.?
So NGOs/PIL filers please please practise what you preach.
Ramesh.
I had raised this point in another blog - but here goes anyway.
The left most lane on most roads remains underutilized as Bangaloreans don't know know what nasty surprises are in store for them there - stumps of trees, mud, stones, manholes, etc. Drive on JC Road or Kanakapura Road and you will see this behaviour for yourself. Most people drive leaving at least 6-8 ft from the pavement (where it exists) or from the edge of the road.
It might be far more cost effective to remove impediments to usage of the left lane and then draw a straight yellow line (not the ones that the BTP currently draws which follow the contours of the tree trunks, etc) so that people can drive inside (w.r.t the median) this yellow line freely.
Some of the road widening is simply mindless. Take the stretch of Airport Road just after Domlur (driving towards MG Road) - there was absolutely no need to widen it as the road further ahead narrows down significantly.
Srivathsa
ramesh_mbabu,
You do have a point - not all PILs are necessarily in public interest & many may be fronts for vested interests, as the school case has shown. The PIL by CMH rd traders is a better example of this - & the courts will obviously strike down their plea, considering public interests, at large since their arguments are invalid in this context. Some sections have even challenged the construction of the Metro itself, when studies have shown & can prove how it will help in commuting & other benefits.
The current CDP permits properties adjacent roads over 60-ft wide for commercial use, & hence roads such as Indiranagar 100-ft rd, Koramangala 80 & 100-ft rds, the wider rds in HRBR, etc are turning commercial. Due to this, many trees within private premises are being felled, no doubt & it is a pity.
The common man, who is unable to have large plots to grow trees on, has only public spaces & parks for him to enjoy a breath of fresh air & for many, public spaces are also for socializing & enjoying the city since they may not have access to any other means.
The reasons why this PIL needs to be supported is not just about saving trees, but because road-widening invites more traffic & with it more chaos & favors only the haves. It has not been demonstarted how such road widening will solve the grid-lock status of the city's roads. All road-widening so far, has resulted in even more traffic & even more chaos.
We do not want this to continue. Much more attention is required for public transport, pedestrians & for promoting bicycle usage, & we have discussed these issues many times in various blogs.
Trust you understand these reasons & why we wish to support this PIL, not others.
People living in and around Jayanagar know how wonderful it is to walk on the Nanda theatre (4th Main) road. Even on a hot day at 1:00 p.m. one can walk without feeling the heat.
Road widening makes life worse for pedestrians in many ways
a. During the widening itself, the pavements are made non-existent and the road sides are uneven. In the dark this is a serious hazard.
b. Trees are cut. People in cars don't feel the heat as much as they have the option of putting on the A/c. Pedestrians suffer.
c. They then have to cross an even wider road which makes the trip even more hazardous.
d. The footpath is left at a bare minimum.
Where does that leave pedestrians especially senior citizens and children among them? I fully support this PIL as it is truly in the interest of the public.
Srivathsa
Road windening is inevitable.
But widening can be done with sense. For example, shy cant we widen the roads,and use the extra lane as a Bus lane? - back to BRTS!
This way the capacity of the lane increases. But without widening some roads, even dreaming of dedicated lanes does not occur!
I feel, roads have to be widened - but the extra space gained must be used very wisely and sensibily. Otherwise it is merely a temporary solution.
W.r.t cutting trees - why not make a rule that for every 1 tree we cut we will plant 5 more. We can form a green belt around the city. We can locate more parks and common areas where trees can be planted.
For example, medians. I have so often seen Medians about 2 feet wide,being filled with RCC! What a waste! why not put some mud and plant a tree - or even a bush!
On BMIC for example, why cant we have trees along the median? We must enforce greenery, with just as much urgency as we are widening the roads.
Atleast areas such as Indiranagar's CMH Road are with people who do not usually take to sabotage and vandalism.
In Rajajinagar's Mahakavi Kuvempu Road (MKK Road) - the road that stars from Navrang Theatre to Malleswaram Circle (KC General Hospital), the small shopkeepers sabotage and remove all construction materials erected by Navayuga Ltd, the contract for namma metro.
There are lots of vested intersts which want buses only throgh that route because most of the bus stops are located close to their shops.
Hello,
We at Hasiru Usiru are convinced that we cannot address this problem with feeble
numbers or a PIL alone. The need of the hour is a show of strength: i.e. we need to
demonstrate to the concerned parties that there is a large number of
people in Bangalore who believe this city is headed down the wrong
path (indiscriminate road widening is one major issue, but not the only one).
While
activities like the PIL are crucial,
there are a host of other things that need to be done in order to save
the city from become a traffic induced urban disaster zone. Examples
include active engagement with govt officials, public protests,
research into alternative transport policies, qunatitative evaluation
of the impact on tree cover, etc).
To this
end, Hasiru Usiru has started work on a campaign called "Namma Raste"
to work towards a sustainable, people-centric approach towards
developing Bangalore's road infrastructure. We are in urgent need
of action-oriented volunteers to work on various aspects of this
campaign. Hence, I urge people on this forum to attend Hasiru Usiru
meetings. These meetings are providing concerned Bangaloreans an
opportunity to take concrete steps to secure a brighter future for this beautiful
city.
To
subscribe to the HU mailing list, please visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HasiruUsiru/
http://www.hasiruusiru.org (this is a rudimentary website that is under
construction, where some information is available under the "blog"
section about recent activities.
Finally,
we at Hasiru Usiru would be really keen on understanding the opinions
of folks like ramesh_mbabu, so let me take this chance to extend
a direct invitation to him to stop by and voice concerns face to face.
If Hasiru Usiru/ESG/Praja are to have areal positive impact on this city, the onus is on us to understand the mix of opinions that are out there .
Regards to all.
Apologies. The first time around I ended up creating a new thread when
I actually wanted to reply to Naveen's comment about engaging with
Hasiru Usiru/ESG.
We at Hasiru Usiru are convinced that we cannot address this problem with feeble
numbers or a PIL alone. The need of the hour is a show of strength: i.e. we need to
demonstrate to the concerned parties that there is a large number of
people in Bangalore who believe this city is headed down the wrong
path (indiscriminate road widening is one major issue, but not the only one).
While
activities like the PIL are crucial,
there are a host of other things that need to be done in order to save
the city from become a traffic induced urban disaster zone. Examples
include active engagement with govt officials, public protests,
research into alternative transport policies, qunatitative evaluation
of the impact on tree cover, etc).
To this
end, Hasiru Usiru has started work on a campaign called "Namma Raste"
to work towards a sustainable, people-centric approach towards
developing Bangalore's road infrastructure. We are in urgent need
of action-oriented volunteers to work on various aspects of this
campaign. Hence, I urge people on this forum to attend Hasiru Usiru
meetings. These meetings are providing concerned Bangaloreans an
opportunity to take concrete steps to secure a brighter future for this beautiful
city.
To
subscribe to the HU mailing list, please visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HasiruUsiru/
http://www.hasiruusiru.org (this is a rudimentary website that is under
construction, where some information is available under the "blog"
section about recent activities.
Finally, we at Hasiru Usiru would be really keen on understanding the
opinions
of folks like ramesh_mbabu, so let me take this chance to extend
a direct invitation to him to stop by and voice concerns face to face.
If Hasiru Usiru/ESG/Praja are to have areal positive impact on this
city, the onus is on us to understand the mix of opinions that are out
there .
Regards to all.
rs -
1 June, 2008 - 17:33
In my opinion in many instances the felling of trees for road widening is avoidable. Usually all they need to do is built the road completely till the footpath. Then make a walkable footpath on the other side - for which there is usually ample space - so people arent forced to walk on the streets. And get rid of those urine collecting BESCOM and Airtel boxes and transformers. Its amazing how primitive the so called `hi-tech' city of Bangalore can be when it comes to such things.
The one place where the city has gotten it right is in BEL area - perhaps because that area is maintained by BEL. The thing they have done is have a road - then a footpath - then about a 2m wide green patch where the trees, as well as the BESCOM boxes and electricity poles are. This way the footpath is unobstructed and walkable. Further, the road is built all the way to the end so cars can drive comfortably.
One can compare this with 15th cross Malleswaram - an extremely wide road. About a year ago they spent crores fixing up the footpath - replacing what existed with granite blocks from the monolithic hills around Bangalore. Within a year the footpath is quite unwalkable - there are gaps, irregularities in level and it is really hard on the feet. So everyone walks on the street and effectively the 6-8m of footpath is useless.
8th Main malleswaram is another gem of lack of planning. There are several trees on the road, but when the new cement footapath was made it was made from tree to tree while on the side there is a long unobstructed part which is supposed to be a green patch - but in reality is a urinal. Common sense would dictate that the green patch is made between the trees and the unobstructed part is made in to a cemented footpath,
One wonders what one can do about these things - who is accountable etc. It is, after all taxpayers money thats being spent on these pointless projects.
as far as clogged roads go there are two major reasons for it. One is jammed junctions and the other is stalled vehicles..
For stalled vehicles all we need is a tow truck..I dont know why we still dont have one and the monsoons have come!
The second is clogged junctions. This is the major cause for all congestion..I think all junctions in Blr need to be redesigned and improved. Even if this means acquiring properties and bringing structures down. better designed junctions is the only way to solve congestion in blr.
For instance traffic police like they always do being reactive..have stopped right turn of vehicles coming from the ring road(from intel) towards whitefield. This is a good move but they have shifted the bottleneck from marathalli bridge to the congested market further down where these vehicles try to make a U-turn. They have these U-turn junctions manned during peak hours.
But what happens is one SUV or a sedan does not have enough space to make the Uturn as the radius is too small! Sometimes the matter is made worse when busses start turning!
[flickr-photo:id=2544629552,size=m]
All that needs to be done is to have more organized way to make u-turns..'wait for your trun' way. This way with few changes much help can be done to both the vehicles turning as well as the ones moving straight!
I agree with you about BEL
it is very well planned; we can go one step ahead in adopting BEL approach; we can reduce the number of BESCOM boxes and locate them in a nice recess; also the electric wires for traffic lights can be laid in nice concrete conduits below the ground.
Around 10 were cut or destroyed, not on these developed private property, but all those were on the road side, healthy full grown trees. The only "PUBLIC INTEREST" for cutting them were the commercial value of the new/rennovated buildings [Accessibility, Visibility & Free parking space made available], but there were no crocodile tears for those trees.
Ramesh.
Ramesh - thanks for the clarification.
Organizations like Hasiru Usiru are voluntary organizations with limited scope & funds, & need help from all of us. They rely on reports from various quarters since they do not have too many staff members, being a voluntary non-profit entity.
The 10 odd trees that were felled for commercial interests may have been saved if a volunteer had reported this to them. They need me & you as their eyes & ears, & I think it would be too much for us to expect them to monitor & stop each & every case of indiscriminate felling, without us helping them.
Exactly Naveen! I am a member of HU, and whenever I have noticed any tree felling activity, I have tried to intervene. But, what's happening today is that the forest officers attached to the BBMP are issuing permissions very easily, and the jobs are being undertaken in a very professional manner, literally overnight, before anyone even gets a scent of the activity. It has been contained to some extent by filing RTI applications, etc. I myself have filed a few. Perhaps more of these can act as deterrents.
The youngsters amongst the HU are a very committed, genuine and passionate lot. They are not against development, but they are questioning the development path. They certainly have a valid point of view.
I do believe 'development and greenery can co-exist'. Look for more under under the same caption in my blog at http://muralidharrao.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
The Valley School incident and HU are not directly connected.
Muralidhar Rao
Or rather one promoter of ESG & valley school incident are directly connected if the news reports on those days are to be believed & the PIL discussed here is filed by none other than ESG. Who knows if this is not a case of private interest disguised as public interest?
Ramesh.
Dear Ramesh,
We can all go crazy trying to hypothesize the real motivation behind
the PIL. I could argue that the point you make about "if the news
reports these days are to be believed" is the real issue, and the lack
of integrity in today's journalism is what has led you to question
the motivation behind the PIL. But this gets us nowhere, since you will
obviously have some counter argument.
The basic point I want to make is : this train of thought is useless,
since it is limited to guesswork & theories. The only *real* thing
here is the PIL itself. I would strongly suggest that we take the
effort to actually read the PIL and judge its motivation from its
content alone.
If you don't have the inclination towards reading it, please consider
attending one HU meeting to see for yourself the integrity and
sincerity of those who are backing this initiative.
Regards.
It's good to know ramesh has a point of view that's completely opposite of what most people are saying on this forum.
If I remember correctly, the residents association at HAL (Indiranagar) did try to stop the tree felling. Infact, they succeeded in the initial stages when the felling was without permission. But once the permissions were granted there wasn't much they could do and it was only a handful of people who were protesting.
Was it their responsibility alone? And why should we expect NGOs to take up causes for us all the time? Is it not our responsibility, as "concerned" and "informed" citizens to get together and fight this indiscriminate felling?
I do agree we need to be careful who we support and what causes we support. The PIL is a step forward in curbing this unplanned felling. It's long overdue. And frankly I can't quite see what could be "private interest" in this.
Imagine this - the Double Road in Indiranagar which has a row of magnificient rain-trees on the central median completely bare, every single tree felled because it needed to be broadened? If the felling continues, this scenario is not far from coming true.
The thought is enough to make me commend this PIL.
tsubba -
29 June, 2008 - 02:10
BBMP defends road-widening
http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062953060300.htm
Palike on Friday defended in the Karnataka High Court the road-widening project it had taken up in the city.
It said that though more than 90 roads were notified in 2005 for road-widening, some of them were dropped, while it was already completed on some roads.
The BBMP made this submission when the court was hearing a petition by Environmental Support Groupand CIVIC, Bangalore, challenging the road-widening project and also the felling of a large number of trees.
The petitioners said scores of trees were being felled under the pretext of road-widening.
They said the BBMP had notified 91 roads for widening in 2005, to be taken up in two phases.
The first phase involves Bellary Road, Palace Road, Seshadri Road, Vidhana Veedi, Nrupatunga Road, Mission Road, Devanga Hostel Road, Sankey Road, Jayamahal Road, Hosur Road, Hosur-Lasker Road, Victoria Road, Sarjapur Road, Lower Agaram Road, Dickenson Road, Old Madras Road, Kengeri Road, Mysore Road, Cottonpet Main Road, Avenue Road and K.G. Road.
The second involves 1st main Chamarajpet, 3rd Cross Bull Temple Road, Link Road, Tannery Road, 17th Main in J.C. Nagar, Kumaraswamy Layout Main Road, MTB Road and Uttarahalli Main Road.
‘Unscientific’
The petitioners said though they had given representation against the unscientific manner of road-widening and tree-felling, no action was taken.
If the guidelines of the national transportation policy were followed, it would obviate large-scale felling of trees, and suggested that the trees could be saved if the BBMP formed a median around them.
The BBMP said medians were feasible only if the trees were planted in a row.
In a majority of the roads, the trees were planted in a zigzag manner, entailing felling if the roads were to be widened.
The BBMP sought time to go through the averments in the petition and come out with its stand. A Division Bench, comprising Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice Ravi Malimath, adjourned further hearing in the case.
Only solution to adapt singapore system of traffic solution, will help, which is already prove right compare any city in the world.
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