BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has proposed several projects, including tunnel roads, double-decker flyovers, buffer roads, elevated corridors, and other infrastructure projects to ease traffic congestion in Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who also holds the Bengaluru Development portfolio, informed the Council on Thursday.
Shivakumar was responding to Congress MLC Sudham Das during the Question Hour on measures taken to decongest Bengaluru city. Shivakumar said that he has taken the responsibility of Bengaluru seriously.
“Bengaluru is not a planned city like New Delhi. Only a few settlements like Malleswaram, Jayanagar, and Indiranagar are planned. Earlier, traffic congestion was controlled to some extent. Otherwise, the situation would have worsened. A notification was issued in 2006 to take up the Peripheral Ring Road project to control traffic congestion, but it did not move forward. The project cost was Rs 2,000 crore then, and now under the Bangalore Business Corridor, the cost has escalated to Rs 26,000 crore,” Shivakumar said.
He said that when KJ George was the Bengaluru Development Minister, there was a proposal to build a steel bridge. “But it was dropped owing to objections. We are now paying the price for that decision,” he said. As a solution to this problem, the government has proposed to build a 40-km-long tunnel road from east to west and from north to south, he said. “This is the first time that such a project is being planned for Bengaluru. Tenders for the first phase will be floated soon. Altinok Engineering Inc (a Delhi-based consultancy firm) has prepared the Detailed Project Report, and the government has given its approval,” he elaborated.
He said a 44.3-km-long double-decker flyover and Metro line are being built. “BBMP and BMRCL will bear the cost of this project in a 50:50 ratio. The cost of each km will be Rs 120 crore. A total grant of Rs 9,000 crore has been set aside for this project. We are now moving forward to control vehicular traffic through a signal-free elevated corridor,” Shivakumar said.
Shivakumar said the government has proposed to build 300 km of buffer roads along rajakaluves, and Rs 3,000 crore has been allocated for this. “Road construction will be done through issuance of Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in ITPL, Thanisandra, RR Nagar, and other parts.
Notification has also been issued for the construction of a 7.8 km road from Hebbal to Hennur... 320 km of new roads are being constructed in Bengaluru,” he explained.
On the white-topping of roads, he said a grant of Rs 9,000 crore has been set aside to white top 1,682 km of roads.
These roads will last for 30 years, he claimed. “An additional Rs 2,000 crore has been received from the World Bank for the construction of 850-km-long stormwater drains. Of this, 480 km has been completed, and work on 175 km is underway. We will take up the work on the remaining 173 km in the future,” he said.