Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya criticised Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar’s proposed tunnel road project, calling it an "elitist and unscientific" initiative that fails to address the city’s core traffic problems.
“The focus must be on moving people, not vehicles. Only then can we solve Bengaluru’s traffic crisis,” Surya said at a press conference on Monday.
Surya described the proposed tunnel from Hebbal to Silk Board as a ‘vanity project’ that serves the elite while neglecting the common citizen. Instead of investing in costly road infrastructure, he urged the Congress government to prioritise public transport.
“When the DCM himself says even God can't fix Bengaluru's traffic, he's admitting incompetence. We don’t need divine intervention-we need competent governance,” he said.
Surya flagged irregularities in the feasibility study and Detailed Project Report (DPR), claiming the Rs 9.5 crore DPR contained content copied from a Rs 1.6 crore BMRCL report. He added that it inexplicably referred to Malegaon and Nashik while analysing Bengaluru’s traffic volumes.
Raising doubts about the credibility of the consultants, Surya said Lion Consultants- who prepared the feasibility report in JV with Altinok-had a group company debarred in Madhya Pradesh for an NHAI project. The DPR author, Rodik Consultants, he alleged, was involved in a Rs 500 crore scam in Jammu & Kashmir.
He also claimed the tunnel project lacked approval from the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), which is required under Section 19 of the BMLTA Act.
Urging a shift in priorities, Surya said: “Before DCM talks of building 100 km of flyovers, let him first complete long-stalled projects like Ejipura Flyover and Hosakerehalli Junction.”
Citing the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), he said the city needs 317 km of metro lines by 2031 but has only 78 km so far, and requires 16,582 buses-while it currently has just 6,835.
“Bengaluru is the beating heart of modern India. It deserves world-class public transport, not vanity infrastructure,” Surya said.
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