A themed approach to restore space under flyovers

By Y Maheswara Reddy | NT

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) adopt-a-flyover programme got a major fillip with the launch of Wild Arena – a wildlife-themed public space under the flyover on Outer Ring Road at Veeranapalya, near Manyata Tech Park on February 5, 2020.

Over the past two years, thousands of people have enjoyed the safe, secure and neat space under the flyover. They now have an additional 5,000 square feet of space to have a new wildlife-themed experience. The new section has three ‘dynamic’ animal sculptures, a tree canopy made with recycled bicycle rims and ample seating and landscaping making it a popular ‘selfie point’ for families, passersby and local residents.

While areas under flyovers are typically landscaped or paved to ‘beautify’ or ‘develop’ them, this is perhaps one of the first such spaces that has been restored with a clear theme based on a state’s wildlife heritage to evoke a sense of pride. It goes beyond just providing a neat, clean and safe space for the public to spend time and relax.

Karnataka has a huge concentration of elephants, tigers and bison. The general public, however, is largely unaware of the state’s rich biodiversity. So the intent of creating such a prideevoking themed space at this location is to bring such an experience into the heart of the ‘urban jungle’ – a busy crowded junction next to one of India’s largest technology parks, on the way to the Kempegowda International Airport, that serves as a bus stop, cab pickup point and extremely high footfall area that is seen, visited and used by tens of thousands of citizens daily.

Background
BBMP partnered with volunteer group ‘The Ugly Indians’ to launch Project UFO in Oct 2015 with the aim of cleaning and beautifying flyover pillars and preventing defacement through illegal posters. Project UFO was launched on Oct 10, 2015 by BBMP Commissioner G Kumar Naik at the Jayadeva Flyover. Over the next 36 months, over 800 pillars across 35 flyovers were cleaned and beautified through a unique citizen-government partnership for civic action – perhaps the largest such initiative in the world, involving over 5000 volunteers. The incidence of illegal posters and defacement on flyover pillars has come down drastically, and this citizen-government project was successfully showcased by Govt of Karnataka for Bengaluru to be one of 2 cities shortlisted worldwide to be the World Design Capital.

‘Adopt-a-Flyover’
Seeing the success of Project UFO that focused only on beautifying pillars, BBMP launched the Adopt-a-Flyover Initiative in February 2018 as part of the Clean Bengaluru Campaign and invited concerned corporates to come forward and adopt the entire Under Fly Over Areas and develop and maintain them as clean public spaces. The first UFO adopted under this scheme was the Veeranapalya Flyover on Outer Ring Road that lies opposite to Manyata Tech Park – it was adopted by L&T Technology Services, as part of their CSR Initiative.

“We are involved in many projects under the CSR initiative. We have taken up this project since it is a very important space. Many visitors from other countries pass through this road while proceeding towards Kempegowda International Airport. We have used MS metal sheet and paver blocks made out of recycling items,’’ said L&T Technology Services CSR Head KN Prabhakaran.

Speaking to News Trail, an Ugly Indians volunteer said that he was very happy with the positive response from locals to protect this place for the past two years. “Not a single item installed here is missing. Initially, many people advised us not to put up costly material here. Now, the space is being protected by locals,’’ said the volunteer.

Project highlights
1. Perhaps the largest parametric roof in a public space in India/Asia. The organic lines are biomimic and break the monotony of a solid concrete feel.
2. Dynamic animal sculptures that are designed for a moving audience that drives past – the animals ‘vanish’ in front of your eyes, provoking the idea that we are in danger of los