BENGALURU: The erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) Comprehensive Bengaluru City Traffic Management Infrastructure Plan-2024, which was the final feasibility report for the city’s long-term mobility projects including the proposed tunnel road, is found to contain “copy-paste” data from earlier studies conducted by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL).
The feasibility report, prepared by Altinok Consulting Engineering Inc, forms the basis for many proposed projects for traffic management, including the Tunnel Road Project. It is now under question after identical traffic volume data was found across multiple corridors, including Tumakuru Road, Mysuru Road and Hosur Road. Similar repetitions were also observed in data for junctions along JC Road, Old Madras Road and Kanakapura Road.
The data appears to have originally appeared in an earlier study — Corridor Improvement Plans-Draft Final Report (August 2020) — raising concerns over the credibility of the report. The feasibility report, which is available online, contains not just the traffic volume data, but also details of the ‘speed and delay survey’ from BMRCL’s report.
Independent mobility expert Satya Arikutharam said the findings point to “acute plagiarism” in the report. “Tables, images and text from older studies are visible throughout. The basis for several car-centric infrastructure proposals, including tunnel roads, is flawed and unscientific,” he said.
He also questioned the expenditure of Rs 5.5 crore on the feasibility report, calling for accountability from the civic body. “It raises serious concerns about how such a report was accepted and paid for,” he added.
This comes after controversy over a separate Rs 9.5 crore Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the tunnel road, which was also alleged to contain copied material, and was flagged before and left unaddressed with the BBMP removing the report from the website, he added.
“Government agencies are taking citizens for granted by relying on material reused from older reports instead of conducting fresh, scientific studies,” said a city-based environment and mobility activist. “The objective appears to be to justify projects that may not be beneficial to the public. This approach assumes citizens will accept anything without scrutiny, which is both unfair and unjust,” the activist added.
When TNIE tried contacting officials from the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and BMRCL, there was no response.