Bengaluru: A year after the citizens of Bengaluru opposed to the construction of a steel flyover, protests are brewing against the ambitious elevated corridor that plans to connect four corners of Bengaluru.
While the project promises to save more than Rs 9000 crore by cutting congestion, the flip side of it — the felling of scores of trees — has left activists fuming.
Details of the project submitted before the chief minister on Monday state that the project will cost Rs 31,863 crore. In addition, 2874 trees will also have to be removed or transplanted to make way for the 102.04 km-long elevated corridor.
The Karnataka Road Development Corporation, which will be implementing the project, will have to acquire at least 35.37 hectare of land, sources told CNN-News18.
Details of the project have not been made public yet.
The project, with six corridors to be implemented in five phases, is being looked at by the government as a solution to the city’s traffic woes, saving fuel and travel time cost.
It also claims that it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.74 lakh tonnes.
More importantly, the project aims to stop building isolated structures once for all as “flyovers only shift problem from one junction to another”, as concerned activists have repeatedly said.
Citizen activists, however, have taken to online campaigning and met deputy chief minister G Parameshwara in the past week, requesting for more focus on public transportation.
“There are many flyovers in Bengaluru. What they do is move the bottleneck to either mount of the flyover. Traffic tends to bunch up at the ends. Instead of spending thousands of crores on this, we think that investment should go towards public transport,” said Tara Krishnaswamy, a local.
Others believe more roads would give way to more private vehicles.
“Elevated corridors lead to one thing - increase in number of private vehicles. Since we already know these moves will fail, give the next decade to integrated public transport and wean off this obsession with roads and elevated corridors,” said Srinivas Alavalli, another resident.
Meanwhile, the government has said the project will only be implemented if there is public support.
“If people want it, we will take it forward, if not, we will drop it and people can enjoy the traffic,” chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had said following preliminary discussions on the project.
The project had been put on the back burner earlier and has again made its way back into the state budget just last month after it went through multiple changes in its length and cost.
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