Thousands of Bengaloreans had hit the streets in protest during early 2017, against the then Congress government’s decision to build a 7-km-long elevated flyover. The citizen movement – which came to be known as ‘steel flyover beda’ campaign and lasted several months – eventually led to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) scrapping the Rs 1,900 crore project.
More than a year later, on 5 July, HD Kumaraswamy has stirred the hornet’s nest by announcing another elevated corridor project – close to 10 times bigger than the 2017 project. In his budget speech, the Karnataka Chief Minister “proposed to construct six interconnected elevated corridors in next four years at a cost of Rs 15,825 crore.”
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And the citizens behind the ‘steel flyover beda campaign’ are once again preparing for a long battle.
#ElevatedCorridorBeda Campaign Begins
Hours after the budget announcement several citizens went on the social media opposing the government’s proposal. A campaign under #ElevatedCorridorBeda was launched where people were asked to call their MLAs to register their protest.
Invest in Public Transport, Not Flyover, say Experts
Ashwin Mahesh, a civic expert, pointed that instead of creating elevated infrastructure, money should be spent on developing the city’s public transport system.
“The doubling of the bus fleet will cost only Rs 5,000 crore, i.e. only a third of the elevated roads. About 1,500 km of walkable footpaths can also be done for Rs 5,000 crore, and these works can begin today. They will result in a shift to public transport as well as support pedestrian movement,” he said.
“The government’s brief note on the project says the corridor will save time, improve road safety and minimise carbon emissions,” pointed out Ashish Verma, Associate Professor Transportation Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. “But if you look at it carefully, the project will do the opposite.”
“When you create fast elevated corridors, bottlenecks at either ends of the corridors are common. Hebbal junction, Yeshwantpura flyovers etc are examples for the same. Secondly, an elevated corridor allows higher speeds and this will result in more accidents. Thirdly, and most importantly, when you create more infrastructure for private vehicles than public transport, you are encouraging more vehicles on road, this will result in more carbon emission,” he said.
According to Verma, the government should instead invest in expanding city’s metro rail, urban rail networks and dedicated bus lanes inside the city.
Project is a Threat to City’s Ecosystem, Say Urban Planners
During the 2017 protests, one of the biggest concerns was felling of trees. While government estimated 800 trees will have to be cut for the construction of the 7km long flyover, an independent estimate by Azim Premji University pointed that over 2,000 would have been cut if the project was implemented . But citizen activism ensured that those trees survived.
The new project, which has five phases will create a 95km long elevated corridor in the city and urban experts and environmentalists are already up in arms against the project, fearing large scale damage to the city’s ecosystem.
Naresh Narasimhan, an architect and urban planner, who was in the forefront of the 2017 ‘steel flyover beda’ protests said that the government has not given enough thought to the environmental damage that the project could cause.
“There are two ways to destroy a city – unwanted infrastructure projects and nuclear bombs. How many trees will have to be cut if such a corridor has to be constructed? Also, why wasn’t the people consulted before taking such a step?” he asked.
Stating a project of this magnitude will take forever to construct he said the project will result in a further traffic chaos in the city.
According to a senior bureaucrat – as only Rs 1,000 crores have been allocated this year – only a feasibility test will be possible in the current financial year.
Meanwhile the citizen groups, which led the protest against the steel flyover have called for a meeting to decide on their plan to oppose the project.
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