Eureka! New way to widen Sankey Rd

The BBMP will begin work on widening the Sankey Tank Bund Road (STBR) by June-end; it has plans to erect pillars on the embankment on the Vyalikaval, Gayathridevi Extension and Kodandapura side to support the widened section. This means that the widened part of the STBR, when ready, will resemble a flyover, while the existing part of the road will continue  to remain as it is.

The road widening plan entails extending the existing 14- metre width of the road to 27 metres. But as Sankey Lake is on one side of STBR, the widening will have to be carried out on the embankment side, below which stand several well-known structures including the violinshaped Chowdiah Memorial Hall and Venkateshwara Temple owned by Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanam (TTD).

BBMP officials said this style of road widening plan (using pillars on one side of the road) has been suggested by scientists at the civil engineering department of Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The members of the BBMP’s technical advisory board were impressed by it. “We have sought help from IISc’s civil engineering department, and professor Srinivas Murthy, who is on the technical advisory committee of the BBMP’s road widening board, has suggested a few ideas to address some of the issues we thought we would face,” BT Ramesh, engineer-in-chief, BBMP, told Media.

Initially, the BBMP had planned to use the landfill technique, which seemed feasible idea. That plan involved filling up 10 feet with soil/mud on the embankment to raise the to-bewidened portion to the level of the existing STBR and then use concrete to strengthen the road. However, it failed when experts suggested that such a method could lead to water leakage from Sankey Lake through cracks developing in the bund, and that could spell disaster for the residents and structures on the residential side of the structure. Vyalikaval, Gayathridevi Extension and Kodandapura, the areas on the other side of the lake are low-lying,densely populated areas.

“Now, we have planned to use a technique that we normally use for flyovers. Pillars and reinforcement panels will be used  to widen the 800-metre-long stretch (by 13 metres) from Bashyam Circle (Sadashivnagar) to the end of STBR near Ayyappa Temple (the entrance to Malleswaram—on the left—
leading to 18th Cross bus stand). This plan was suggested by the advisory panel (on being advised by the IISc scientists) and we are looking into this plan as very feasible,” said KT Nagraj, superintendent engineer, BBMP.

Being cautious However, before a flyover-like part-structure is built on the embankment, a series of tests are scheduled before the actual construction begins. The STBR is a man-made structure, built in 1882, to develop an artificial lake that is today named Sankey Tank. Because of this, there is some degree of apprehension about the safety of the pillars that are planned to be erected on the STBR’s embankment. Therefore, the BBMP will begin by conducting soil and load-bearing tests to first determine what kind of pillars could be erected and with what material (metal or concrete). 

After prolonged protests, beginning August 2011, to save trees on the embankment—17 have been felled while at least 36 more remain to be axed—a high court division bench headed by Justice N Kumar had directed the BBMP, in December 2010, to complete the STBR road widening work within 12 months.

However, even after six months, no work has started. The announcement to begin work on widening STBR was made on Tuesday at the Janaspandana programme by Mayor Venkatesh Murthy.

Artificial lake
Sankey Tank Bund Road was constructed by Col Richard Hieram Sankey of the Madras Sappers Regiment in 1882 to create an artificial lake to meet the water supply demand of Bangalore then. The STBR also served as the shortest possible way to connect Vyalikaval, Malleswaram and Sadashivnagar when these areas began developing into residential areas, which at the time of STBR being built were forests.