The KR Puram Tin Factory Junction in Bengaluru will be taken up for a comprehensive master plan aimed at improving traffic movement and making the busy interchange more pedestrian-friendly, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Saturday.
Byre Gowda instructed officials to prepare the plan after reviewing development works near the junction with officials and local representatives. He said metro routes, vehicles travelling from KR Puram towards ITPL, Whitefield and Marathahalli, and traffic entering the city from the outskirts converge at the junction, creating a complex movement problem.
The minister said the proposed development would focus not only on smoother vehicle movement but also on facilities for pedestrians and public transport users. Lakhs of people use the junction every day, making it necessary to plan the area as an integrated transport space rather than address individual road or footpath problems separately.
The announcement came during the launch of the second phase of the Ward One campaign. Byre Gowda said the campaign was started on November 1 to address small infrastructure problems across Bengaluru’s wards and coordinate responses among multiple civic agencies.
According to the minister, work taken up during the first phase in 43 wards is about 90% complete. The second phase has been launched in around 40 wards. The campaign is intended to provide immediate relief for temporary problems while addressing basic infrastructure deficiencies in stages, he said.
Under the campaign, road, footpath, streetlight, drainage, electricity supply, forestry and horticulture-related issues in a ward are being handled through joint teams rather than by departments working independently. The minister said separate data had been collected from each city corporation on work completed under the campaign, including the removal of black spots, filling of potholes and clearance of construction waste.
He said the purpose of the campaign was not merely to publish performance figures but to identify problems in the city and pursue coordinated solutions. The master plan for Tin Factory Junction is expected to bring the junction’s traffic, walking and public transport requirements into a single development framework, although the source report did not specify a project cost, construction schedule or implementation agency.
The inspection was also followed by a confrontation between KR Puram MLA Byrathi Basavaraj and former Legislative Council member M. Narayanaswamy. The disagreement reportedly began after a local resident raised the issue of an unrepaired pothole. Narayanaswamy allegedly criticised the local MLA’s development record, after which the two exchanged heated words and moved towards a physical confrontation.
Byre Gowda intervened when the dispute escalated and separated the two. Basavaraj later accused Narayanaswamy of attempting to assault him when residents were trying to raise a civic issue before the minister. BJP workers subsequently walked from Uttam Sagar Hotel in Ramamurthy Nagar to the local police station and staged a protest over the incident.
MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, Greater Bengaluru Authority Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao, East City Corporation Commissioner D.S. Ramesh and Additional Commissioner Lokhande Snehal Sudhakar were present during the site review. The next formal step is the preparation of the comprehensive master plan for the junction.
