BENGALURU: After dropping the steel flyover project, the next ambitious proposal put forth by Bengaluru Development Minister K J George is to build tunnel roads.
The minister has proposed tunnel roads from Hebbal to Chalukya Circle (6km), Jalahalli to Goraguntepalya (1.4km), Nayandahalli to Majestic (8km) and SRS Road and Pipeline Road to Peenya (2.25 km), in order to decongest the city roads. However, urban and transport experts have trashed the idea saying it will not be a sustainable solution for the long run and will instead add to the traffic chaos.
Urban expert H S Sudhira said, “There has been an international study that says that in a congestion network, if you are going to add more networks, you will fail. A bigger mess will evolve out of it and will backfire. In situations like this, the supply is not the issue. We have to manage from the demand side. All these can be done only by policies that discourage private vehicles like no street-parking, odd-even rule and so on.”
On Monday, the minister met a delegation of experts from Bulgaria, who proposed tunnel roads. This is not the first time that tunnel roads have been proposed for the city. In 2007, the Karnataka government led by H D Kumaraswamy had proposed to build a 7.1-km tunnel between Minsk Square and Sankey Road. Then in 2010-11, the then Bengaluru Development Minister R Ashoka had also initiated one. Theproject is estimated to cost Rs 9,600 crore and will need about 1,800 acres.
Dr Ashish Verma, mobility expert and associate professor, Centre for Infrastructure Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, IISc, said, “The point is if the solution is sustainable. Directly stating a solution and trying to do a feasibility report is not the answer. An alternative analysis should be done and only after that they should choose the best.”