BANGALORE: The spotlight seems to be fixed on Sankey Tank once again. While earlier the issues were regarding the widening of the Sankey Tank Road, now it is the park which seems to be grabbing all the attention. According to the members of Sankey Tank Walkers’ Association (STWA) the park has quite a few problems that need to be tackled. While some may seem minor, there are others which are rather pressing.“Until four years ago there was a bridge that connected the western and eastern parts of the park, thereby forming a full circle. Also, the walking track at that time was not wide enough. As a result the walkers had no option but to rub shoulders against each other. Hence a number of development tasks were taken up by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). While the track was widened, the height of the retaining wall was also increased. Meanwhile, in order to increase the water level and the area of the lake, the bridge had to be broken. We have been asking the BBMP authorities to reconstruct another bridge, but nothing has happened,” said Anand, the president of the association. “An entire round around the park used to be approximately two kilometres, now it has doubled. There used to be a certain joy in completing one full round of the park, but now that can not be done,” said a walker.The submerged bridge is not the only repercussion of the efforts made to increase the water level. According to Vijay Kumar, the secretory of STWA, “While all the development work was in progress, the height of the retaining wall was also raised. But, instead of angling the wall, the authorities erected a perpendicular wall. This has been developing cracks ever since due to the water pressure,” said Sumati Rao, another elderly walker expressed her concerns about the safety.She said, “We are very worried for the safety of the walkers. Given the visible condition of the retaining wall, one really doesn’t know when the wall could just collapse,” she said.Barring these grave issues, there are a handful of other matters also too are tormenting the walkers and the members of the association. The members, from the looks of it have been quite successful in pushing the BBMP to do more than just an average job. The park is probably the only one of its kind which caters to emergencies as well. There is a medical center which is equipped to cater to medical emergencies and also has an exhaustive list of all the doctors who come to the park to walk. Apart from that there is also a musical fountain.“The officials told us that this would be a musical fountain. There is music and the fountain does work, but, the fountain seems to have two left feet,” said Kumar, another walker, referring to lack of synchronisation. He further mentioned that the park is plagued with rodents. “There are many rodents in the park. They have become a menace,” he said.According to the members who have been interacting with the BBMP officials on a regular basis, the reason for the delay in civic body’s timely work is that there are no funds for the tasks to be executed. The local corporator of Aramane Nagar, Dr M S Shivaprasad, said that the BBMP commissioner has not sanctioned the bridge.“However, we are pressing for it. Meanwhile this year the construction of the bridge has been included in the budget. There is also a technical snag. Building a bridge on land is different from constructing one in water. The last time that the tender was floated, no one came forward. This year we have estimated the maintenance for the park as four crores for this year,” said the corporator.
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