PALACE - I reaffirmed its meaning by looking into the dictionary, not because I needed to look for the meaning. But, to recuperate from the shock after seeing the recent happenings at the Palace road, which is right behind the Vidhana Soudha.
The road does justify the name with its proximity to the Vidhana Soudha, the 24/7 free legal counsel, the Maharani College, Bsnl office, SJP polytechnic college and Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College. And to top it all the green cover that gave these places a palatial look.
But from the past few weeks the road has been stripped of its palatial trees that were planted about 60-65 years and is being developed into a 'CONCRETE JUNGLE'. This has resulted in the on set of the usual humdrums associated with most of Bengaluru like the dust, shambled pavements, dug roads, cables all over the road there by matching every square feet of the palace road to a war field. And the reason is the usual traffic problem.
If one were to look at the Palace road one would see that the deforestation in the name of traffic management was mindless.The reason is that the Palace road is about 1.2 kilometre stretch leading to market and majestic only. But the scene at the J.C Nagar stretch leading to Mekhri circle is not the same. It is a two way and probably the most heaviest used intersection in the entire city . Yet it has a divider and no trees have been cut down. One cannot understand the indifference towards the Palace road, which is not so conjested.
All the intersections leading to market and majestic from the Palace road is a one way. But at the J.c Nagar stretch vehicles come back in from mekhri circle, R.T.Nagar, vasanth Nagar and jayamahal. While most vehicles only move out of the Palace road they do not come back via the same road.
So would the authorities give substantial reasons for the road widening, inspite of numerous alternative roads to majestic and market. And are they planning to restore the green cover after the work? Whatever the reason may be, one should realise that trees give us life. So there is absolutely no excuse for deforestation in the name of development. There must be some restoration plans.Also there are options where nations like France which handle similar traffic have built roads without cutting trees. Lets hope atleast the remaining few trees do not become the victims of traffic management.
