BENGALURU: The Congress government is digging Lalbagh’s grave by constructing the tunnel road project. It will push the city’s economy into an abyss, warned Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka, who along with other BJP leaders protested at Lalbagh on Sunday.
MP Tejasvi Surya and other BJP leaders too were part of the demonstration under the slogan - ‘Save Lalbagh, Protect Bengaluru’. They launched a signature campaign against the project. Ashoka termed it a VIP project, while 90% of the people are middle-class or poor.
The government is borrowing heavily to execute the project which will sink Bengaluru’s economy. It has not got clearance from the Geological Survey of India. The government has installed a board stating that Lalbagh and the rock are a protected area, and yet the government itself is violating it, he added. “When 70% are two-wheeler riders in Bengaluru, a tunnel road is being built for car drivers,” Ashoka ridiculed, saying the government should fix potholes first, instead of building an underground tunnel road.
“For 1 km of tunnel road, Rs 1,285 crore is needed. This is more expensive than launching a satellite. With the same money, a 5 km Metro route can be built, which can carry 60,000 people,” he pointed out.
Surya said, “Tunnel roads do not decongest cities, they merely shift traffic from one junction to another without addressing the root cause, which is overdependence on private transport and lack of robust public mobility options. This project threatens to permanently damage Lalbagh’s ecology, including the 3,000-million-year-old Peninsular Gneiss rock, a National Geological Monument, as it has been pushed forward without proper environmental or geological impact studies.”
Meanwhile, CM Siddaramaiah said, “DCM DK Shivakumar has said a committee will be formed under the leadership of Opposition Leader Ashoka to examine the concerns of the opposition party and come to a consensus.”
He said, “People are not opposing the project. Only the BJP is doing it for political reasons. Why should there be opposition to this project that will solve traffic issues? Similar tunnel projects have been undertaken in many countries.”