Four missed deadlines and over a year later, Bengaluru’s revamped Church Street was finally inaugurated on Thursday.
Constructed under the TenderSURE model, the 750m granite cobblestone path has LED street lights, footpaths on both sides of the road (which the stretch lacked a year ago), designated parking locations with separate parking spaces reserved for women, and segregated dustbins at multiple spots.
The road has been inaugurated, but the work is yet to be completed.
“The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) has managed to complete all the work except for the construction of the four-wheeler parking bays. This separate parking space can accommodate 60 two-wheelers and 40 four-wheelers,” said BBMP Chief Engineer (Road Widening), KT Nagaraj.
Work on the 750m stretch started on February 22, 2017, and was supposed to be completed on July 1, 2017. Once work started and they began digging, the workers discovered British-era sewage pipelines and water pipelines.
As the contractors had to lay new stormwater drains, sewage and Cauvery water pipelines in addition to the stretch being revamped, the contractors missed four deadlines - July 1, August 1, December 1 and January 31.
CM Siddaramaiah entered the street in a BMTC bus for the inauguration to slogans of “Siddu, Siddu. Haris, Haris”. Shantinagar MLA N A Haris, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy, Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George, Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad and corporators of Shantinagar constituency were also present.
Speaking at the inauguration, KJ George said that despite the hurdles faced while constructing the road, the BBMP did a great job.
“This is a model road for Bengaluru and that’s why Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced that even Brigade Road and Commercial Street will be redone same way. Also, the signal near MG Road will be redone to look like Times' Square. We will call it Bengaluru Square," KJ George added.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also inaugurated the eight-lane flyover and an underpass at the Okalipuram Junction, a multi-level parking facility at Freedom Park, and the MG Road footpath on Friday.
The eight-lane flyover and underpass was constructed at a cost of Rs 352 crore and is expected to reduce bottlenecks.
The restoration of footpath on the MG Road by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited and the BBMP was already completed in June 2017. However, it was inaugurated on Thursday.