BENGALURU: Around 300 people from North Bengaluru of the ‘Steel Flyover Beku’ brigade gathered near Esteem Mall on Sunday to protest against the government’s recent decision to scrap the flyover project. They demanded that the decision be withdrawn and that the project be implemented immediately.
Residents from Sahakaranagar, Judicial Layout, Amruthanagar, Dr Shivaramakarantha Nagar, Basava Balaga and other neighbouring areas of North Bengaluru raised slogans calling for traffic-free roads.
B M Devarajappa, president of Karnataka Abhivruddi Mattu Anustana Samiti, said, “Environmentalists and intellectuals, those who opposed smooth traffic to North Bengaluru -- I would like to ask them to introspect and tell us how many saplings they planted after being able to stop the flyover project? Could you control forest fire in Nagarahole and Kappattagudda where thousands of trees are burning? Did anyone help in dousing the forest fire? None. Then how can they say that the flyover will harm the environment? Why are you unable to control kickbacks in government contracts? Instead of discussing these issues sitting across the
table and stopping corruption, they have spoiled a deserving facility for North Bengaluru.”
Shivarama Shetty, general secretary of Karnataka Abhivruddi Mattu Anustana Samiti and member of Sahakaranagar Residents Welfare Association (RWA), said, “We are not asking for a steel flyover. Give us any flyover, but give us a solution. We are fed up of dirty politics and the media who have been biased in this issue. Does anyone have the guts to demolish Ramana Maharshi Ashram and a prayer hall near Hebbal to widen the road? The flyover would have avoided all this. We still have time.”
H M Venkatesh, a resident of Judicial Layout, said, “Our survey says that the total number of vehicles per day on Hebbal flyover is 2,67,925, of which 1,07,130 are two-wheelers. The average speed of vehicles during the peak hour is 10-15 km per hour. The additional fuel consumed to travel the distance at this low speed is around 1,43,175 litres totalling `10 crore per month.”