BackVoices grow louder against elevated corridor project in Bengaluru
Bengaluru is the growth engine of Karnataka and has become a city that is crumbling under pressure due inadequate infrastructureThe almost 100 km elevated corridor is designed to criss-cross the city and cost around ₹27,000 crore
PremiumBENGALURU : Hundreds of people from different parts of Bengaluru came together to voice their protests against the proposed elevated project corridor that would lead to loss of precious green cover in the garb of finding mass transport solutions.
Hashtags including #TenderRadduMaadi (cancel the tender) was trending on Twitter while slogans like Elevated Corridor Beda and Concrete Beda were being used to charge up the crowd that appeared to swell in size with each passing hour on Saturday.
"We would rather lose this government than our trees," said another poster, held by Keerthana Reddy, a 30 year old designer who gathered with other protesters in Maurya circle, in the central business district of Bengaluru.
"We have built elevated roads in Bengaluru and it hasn't solved our problems," said 26 year old Prerna Pradeep. She said that Bengaluru could look at more sustainable development models than chop its trees.
Home to over 10 million people and over 7.5 million vehicles, Bengaluru is the growth engine of Karnataka and has become a city that is crumbling under pressure due inadequate infrastructure.
The almost 100 km elevated corridor is designed to criss-cross the city and cost around ₹27,000 crore. More importantly lead to the felling of over 3500 fully grown trees that environmentalists and citizen groups are objecting to.
Successive governments have been unable to come up with sustainable solutions to decongest Bengaluru or develop other nearby cities but instead moot ideas and projects that adds to further degradation of the environment without any positive results.
Urban centres across the country are trying to accommodate mass migrations from small towns and villages into cities looking for jobs and better quality of life adding to its own pressures due to lack of a long term sustainable policies.
Issues like infrastructure, corruption and development resonate with the urban population, especially with the upcoming parliamentary elections.
"All this will definitely determine who I vote for," said D.R. Prakash from the Osborne Road residents welfare association, who needed support to walk. He said that he had suffered multiple fractures after he fell on a pothole and gravel laden road in Bengaluru.
Much of Bengaluru remains under a cloud of dust due to non-stop construction of infrastructure projects often carried out without taking the public into confidence.
Though several projects are touted to reduce the problems for Bengaluru, slow pace of approvals and even slower rate of realisation leading only to cost overruns and adding to the problems of ordinary commuters.
The H.D.Kumaraswamy-led government was quick to revive several such projects that were designed in 2006 and may have lost its relevance and feasibility now due to the unplanned growth of Bengaluru and high cost of land acquisition.
"One of the biggest hurdles in Bengaluru's progress is traffic congestion.The #elevatedcorridor project is the solution to this.Some citizengroups r protesting agnst the project. My request to all is to come to me&raise their concerns.I will listen with an open mind to ur feedback" H.D.Kumaraswamy wrote on Twitter
Citizens being forced to take to the streets once again after the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government revived plans to revive the controversial six kms steel bridge that would cut over 800 full grown trees just to cut 15 mins of travel time.
The coalition government is hoping that the steel bridge would help it get votes in Bengaluru North parliamentary constituency which it is trying to wrest from the clutches of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming polls.
Protesters on Saturday said that every solution given by the state government results in more concretisation of Bengaluru that was once known as "garden city" for its lush green cover.
"Complete existing projects like metro and unfinished flyover's before even thinking about new ones. Public infrastructure is not a money making exercise," Reddy said.
Most of the expenditure for mass transport has been consumed by the yet-to-be completed metro project that limits itself to cater only to 10-15% of Bengaluru. Protesters said that the most sustainable solution would be to increase the number of buses that ferry almost 45-50% of Bengaluru's commuters everyday.
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