Basveshwar Nagar Main Road -A Shoppers Paradise

2012-02-11T20:14:00.001-08:00

From Being a Sleepy Neighborhood with a handful number of Mom and Pop Stores .From the Past two Years Basveshwar Nagar Main Road has undergone a sea of change .Lack of Space for a Large Shopping Mall in the Vicinity and Retailers inclination towards high streets over malls has been pivotal in changing landscape

Apparel Stores

Mom and Me

The crucial crossover

2012-02-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

Being one with the city: Famed for its vast agricultural fields and thriving ecosystem, Hebbal nudges towards the modern with its highways and flyover

What defines Hebbal is its business parks, the Outer Ring Road, the bustling evening santhe, and all of these nestled under the rising maze of flyovers

From being the tiny hamlet that it was some years ago with a muddy road for a highway, Hebbal's character has seen a sea change. Today, it has evolved into a bustling neighbourhood wired to a labyrinth of flyovers encircling National Highway 7.

Once hailed as the northern tip of the city, Hebbal has come closer to the city centre with the development of Yelahanka and Devanahalli international airport that lie beyond it.

City limits

“In those days, Hebbal was not a part of the city as it is today. Munireddypalya to the east, Palace Guttahalli to the south and the Indian Institute of Science to the west were the prominent city limits. Without daily contact with the city, we lived a somewhat isolated life for three years. This had its own rewards,” says R. Dwarkinath, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, in an essay titled ‘Hebbal agricultural farm, an evergreen memory' in which he discusses Hebbal in 1946. Dwarkinath reminisces about the days he spent as a student at the college.

Institutions

Testimonials like these vouch for the fact that its location was considered apt for the promotion of agricultural research in the State. Combined with a supportive ecosystem of a lake, wetlands and a sizable portion of farming land, Hebbal soon became home to a range of agricultural institutions.

Towering

Even today, as you cross Mekhri Circle and enter Hebbal, the row of agricultural and allied institutions on the left confirm this history. But look right as you travel along the highway and you can see a semi-urban neighbourhood against the backdrop of towering apartment complexes. Part-time broker and an old resident of Hebbal, ‘2nd Main Road Parvathamma' as she likes to call herself, talks about how the area has grown beyond recognition.

“Earlier, when Hebbal used to be just a village, buses from Chintamani or Chikkaballapura would halt at the bus-stop on the rustic highway once in three days. We still live in our old houses but the area now has a mall and commercial housing complexes. Bellary Road too has become unrecognisable,” she said.

Fate of the lake

B.R. Shankar, another resident of the area, remembers how the land where the Outer Ring Road stands once used to be a part of the Hebbal lake.

Proposed to be managed and developed under a controversial public-private arrangement, the fate of the Hebbal lake hangs in the balance.

Though the lake was leased out by the Lake Development Authority to East India Hotels Ltd. in 2007 for a period 15 years to ‘develop' it into a recreational venue, little to nothing has been done.

Landmarks

Cordoned off to the public, onlookers drive past the lake to the more feasible hang out, Esteem Mall. Situated in the same row as the Kirloskar Tech Park, the Columbia Asia Hospital and the Manyata Embassy Business Park, this mall is one of the landmarks Hebbal gained once the Coffee Board Layout in Hebbal Kempapura was made a residentially viable option.

As one stands at the traffic signal outside the mall waiting to cross the perennially busy highway, one sees present-day Hebbal in a nutshell — the new business parks and apartment complexes on either side of the highway; an Outer Ring Road running parallel to the age-old railway line; the bustling evening santhe (market) just behind the railway track; and all of this nestled under the rising maze of flyovers.

North West Bangalore

Basveshwar Nagar Main Road -A Shoppers Paradise

The crucial crossover