The Karnataka Cabinet has cleared two big-ticket projects: Tunnel Road and Sky-Deck. The BBMP’s DPR for the Bengaluru Tunnel Road is for a six-lane, 18-kilometre underground tunnel that will connect Hebbal in the north to the Central Silk Board junction in the south. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 16,500 crore. The proposed 250-metre-high sky deck, supposed to become the tallest tower in South Asia, is estimated to cost Rs 500 crore. The tunnel roads may be extended, there may be other expressways, flyovers, double-decker roads, etc., in the pipeline. All these projects taken together are expected to cost more than Rs. 50,000 crores.
Misplaced priorities
This is a cause for concern about the priorities of the State government. When several fundamental rights and basic needs of Karnataka’s citizens have not been met due to shortage of funds, spending on the luxury needs of a few should not be allowed.
No institutional planning process followed
The unilateral announcement of the Tunnel Road Project, divorced from institutional planning mechanisms needs to be questioned. It was in December 2022, that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) was constituted – the apex authority responsible for preparing the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for the city, implementing and monitoring all transport-related projects. But the BMLTA has been kept dysfunctional since its constitution while these adhoc projects are being merrily proposed. The tunnel road project is definitely not a part of the CMP already prepared by BMRCL with DULT support. There have been no public consultations on it or on the sky deck project as required under the law. The BMLTA Act says that anyone carrying out projects without its express permission can be punished!
MPC too kept dysfunctional
The BMLTA should strictly speaking come under the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC), the umbrella planning body foreseen for Metros under the 74th Constitutional Amendment, or Nagarapalika Act. The MPC foresees membership of the mayor and several councillors of the BBMP in it to make planning for the city a decentralised function of the third tier of government. But elections to BBMP have not been conducted since four years, in a blatant violation of the Constitution. Since there is no mayor and there are no councillors currently in BBMP, the MPC too has not been constituted. Even when the MPC did exist earlier, it too was kept dysfunctional. In its absence, the State government is making ad hoc plans for the city, which is again a violation of the Constitution.
Tunnel road project benefits 2.8% of population
So, who are these projects meant for? Tunnel roads will benefit only the 23-lakh private car-owners of Bengaluru, who are a mere 2.8 % of the approximately 7 crore population of the State. To spend Rs. 16,500 crore to satisfy their whims and status-consciousness is questionable when the entire backward Kalyana Karnataka is hardly given Rs. 3,000 crore per year and even that is not spent fully every year.
No coherence with Climate Action Plan
- Does this incentivization of cars have any coherence with the Bengaluru Climate Action Plan (BCAP) inaugurated recently or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
- Do the DPRs prepared for this project include its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment?
- And does it have a cost-benefit analysis which includes the cost of its environmental and social impact? Experts are saying the costs may outweigh the benefits.
- Have geological impacts been considered?
Experts have raised the following major challenges posed by the project: the geological complexities of Bengaluru with its hard rocks, fissures, and water tables make tunnelling difficult; there are concerns over sinkholes and landslides increasing, potentially affecting tunnel structural integrity; disruptions in groundwater flow, etc.
Read more: Bengaluru climate action and resilience plan: Connecting the dots
Solutions
Focus on water crisis instead: Is the tunnel road the most urgent project needed for the city which has reached its carrying capacity and is facing an acute water crisis with drying borewells, on the one hand, and immense flooding on the other. Should we be rather using the money to construct tunnels for storing rainwater under the roads, as suggested by experts, to solve the water crisis. So, where should the priority be? Why not build these tunnels for storing water which will benefit all Bengalureans, rather than tunnel roads for cars?
Develop Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities: Why not spend this Rs. 16,500 crore to develop all Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and Kalyana Karnataka to stop migration of more and more people to Bengaluru which is causing the traffic congestion?
Improve health and education for all 7-crore population: Should we be rather doubling the current expenditure for health and education in Karnataka from the current 15% (11% plus 4.9%) to the recommended level of 30% of expenditure by doing away with the tunnel roads, which would provide to all the seven crore Kannadigas excellent facilities for free health care and education, the prime components for a decent life.
Improve solid waste management instead of sky deck: In January 2023, the BBMP estimated cost of Rs 590 crore per year for transporting garbage to distant areas. Instead of transporting garbage out of every ward to a distant site every day, can we use the same Rs. 500 crore meant for the sky deck to give every one of the 3 million households of Bengaluru a compost bin available at Rs. 1,500 each, and solve the garbage crisis at source and set up local processing centres as in Alleppy?
Increase use of public transport to 75%: With the number of private vehicles reaching 1.2 crore, there is almost one vehicle per person in Bengaluru. The percentage of commuters using public transport is less than 50% currently in Bengaluru. The focus must be on expanding the public transport network so that at least 75% of the city travels by it, as in London.
Disincentivise private car usage: The government cannot keep adding new roads, flyovers, or tunnels and incentivise private vehicles. There will be no end. Bengaluru’s population will cross 2 crores by 2031. A tunnel road here and there would not help in decongesting the city. The solution is to disincentivise usage of cars through congestion tax, graded parking fees even in residential layouts, etc.; and prevent purchase of second and third cars if they do not have parking space.
Make public transport fast, frequent and reliable: The solution is to focus on “faster, better, cheaper, safer, simpler, tried and tested options” such as bus, suburban rail, walkability, cyclability, etc., to improve quality of living for all. Increase the bus fleet, ensure its frequency and reliability; add BRTS on major arterial roads; re-route bus system by adopting hub and spoke method and providing last-mile connectivity. Make public transport by bus cheaper than even the use of two-wheelers or make it free for all, not just for women. The picture accompanying this appeal is the solution for congestion: If all the persons in the 100 cars in the left portion of the picture get into the two buses in the right portion of the picture, there will be no congestion!!!
Note: A signature campaign with a fervent appeal to CM Siddaramaiah to drop the tunnel road project, other expressways, and sky deck project which are against Bengaluru’s and Karnataka’s interests has been initiated by Kathyayini Chamaraj. The above copy is based on the text in the petition and republished with permission, with minimal edits.