BECC Chief pushes Gunjur-Varthur road widening

BENGALURU In a decisive move to tackle chronic traffic congestion and accelerate long-delayed infrastructure projects, Bengaluru East City Corporation Commissioner D.S. Ramesh chaired a high-level review meeting. The comprehensive session focused entirely on expediting the critical Gunjur–Dommasandra–Varthur road widening project, which forms a vital arterial segment of State Highway 35. With portions of the corridor stalled for years due to administrative hurdles, the newly formed municipal leadership is aggressively driving administrative workflows to bring immediate relief to thousands of daily commuters navigating eastern Bengaluru. The extensive infrastructure initiative covers crucial stretches, including a 2-kilometer corridor from Dommasandra to Gunjur and a 1.9-kilometer stretch connecting Gunjur to Varthur. According to the Revised Master Plan 2015, the entire roadway is officially designated for expansion to an impressive fifty meters. During the review, municipal engineers confirmed that while the Dommasandra segment is fully completed, approximately 1.4 kilometers of the Gunjur–Dommasandra section have also been successfully finished. However, remaining bottlenecks on a 600-meter stretch have persisted due to complex land acquisition disputes and pending Transferable Development Rights processing. Addressing these prolonged delays head-on, Commissioner Ramesh issued strict directives to municipal engineering teams, instructing them not to wait indefinitely for full 6-lane clearances where land acquisition remains tied up in litigation. Instead, authorities must immediately finish laying a fully motorable four-lane configuration utilizing currently available land parcels to ease traffic flow without further postponement. To resolve property boundaries definitively, officials were ordered to conduct a fresh physical survey by October 8, marking government and private property limits clearly with red indicators and poles at intervals of ten to twenty meters. The meeting also scrutinized complex land acquisition bottlenecks across multiple critical zones. Regarding twenty properties situated near the Varthur Bridge, the Transferable Development Rights process has already been finalized for six plots, while paperwork for nine additional properties is progressing rapidly. For Property Number 34, where statutory compensation under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act has already been formally deposited in court, the commissioner instructed teams to complete necessary legal formalities and secure physical possession under police protection if required. Furthermore, out of 65 properties located between Vinayaka Theatre and Vishal Mart, financial disbursements have been cleared for 35 holders, with urgent instructions issued to fast-track compensation payments for the remaining thirty.