HC annexe: Govt scouting for alternative sites

Backlash over plan to construct 10-storey annexe to the High Court in Cubbon Park prompting search for alternative locations

After facing severe backlash from citizens over the plan to construct a 10-storeyed annexe to the High Court on Cubbon Park premises, the Public Works Department and Horticulture Department are now reportedly scouting for alternative locations.

Sources in the Horticulture Department, under whose purview Cubbon Park comes, the site inside the park may not be feasible for the construction of the annexe following the protests.

“As the site is not feasible for that building, we are on the lookout for alternate sites near the park. It will take a few days to find an alternative site and communicate it to the court,” the source said.

The State government recently revived the 10-storey building project inside Cubbon Park to accommodate an annexe to the High Court at the site of the old Election Commission building. The same project, when it was proposed in 2019 (as a 7-storey building), had faced severe opposition and was thus dropped back then.

After the news about the revival of the project broke, a citizen organisation, Heritage Beku, started a petition, #NoHighRiseCubbon, demanding that the construction project be stopped. The petition received over 11,000 signatures.

On Sunday, many regular visitors to the park, along with the Heritage Beku and Cubbon Park Walkers’ Association staged a protest at the park opposing the project. They raised concerns about the annexe causing harm to the ecosystem of Cubbon Park while also increasing pedestrian and vehicular traffic inside the premium lung space of the city.