Fighting for space in Bengaluru’s core area Premium

Bengaluru considers relocating Chinnaswamy Stadium and other entities to city outskirts amid safety and congestion concerns.

Following the death of 11 persons in a stampede outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, located in the heart of Bengaluru, on June 4, a long-standing proposal to shift the cricket stadium to the city’s outskirts has again gained currency. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, responding to a media query, has said the government will consider the proposal. This has also brought to the fore similar proposals to shift other entities like the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC), the Bangalore Golf Club (BGC), and the agricultural produce marketing committee (APMC) yard at Yeshwantpur out of the core city areas.

There have been two instances in Bengaluru when the government has shifted such establishments out of the core city areas. The APMC yard, which was operating out of N.T. Pet in the congested Pete area of the core city, was shifted to Yeshwantpur in the northwestern part in the late 1980s, and the HAL airport was shut down for commercial passenger traffic in 2008 after a new airport was built about 40 km away near Devanahalli.

In the aftermath of the stampede, the city police are also keen on getting the stadium out of the central business district (CBD). “The seating capacity of the stadium — 32,000 — has proven to be inadequate, given the demand for tickets during almost every match. There are thousands of gatecrashers during every match. Our recent experience suggests that if there is a tragedy inside the stadium, evacuation will be a Herculean task. It is better if the stadium is shifted to the city’s outskirts, where a larger facility can be built with adequate parking space,” says a senior police officer.

The city police will likely recommend the same to the State government and the John Michael D’Cunha commission, which is tasked with recommending measures to ensure such incidents do not recur.

Sources in the government say that land has been earmarked for a sports stadium in the Dr. Shivaram Karanth Layout, being developed by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in the northern part of the city. Plans are also on to build a similar stadium at the now-proposed Bidadi Integrated Township project in the southwestern part of the city as well.

Meanwhile, around 300 shops selling perishable items such as onions, potatoes, garlic, and ginger at the Yeshwantpur APMC yard, spread over 85 acres, were recently given a June 1 deadline to shift to the Dasanapura yard near Nelamangala, northwest of Bengaluru. For over a decade now, the Karnataka government has been trying to shift the yard to Dasanapura to avoid lorry traffic in the city, but has repeatedly failed. This time, too, efforts have met with legal challenges, forcing the government to seemingly back off.

In the last week of May, the police gave a report to the government recommending the shifting of shops selling perishables at the Yeshwantpur yard to Dasanapura, citing parking issues for lorries leading to traffic chaos in the area.