BENGALURU: A citizen’s movement against the elevated corridor project has begun even as the state government tries to push it forward by seeking an Environment Impact Assessment Study. A large group of citizens, including environmental groups, ecologists, urban conservationists and locals, have called for scrapping the project and have termed their opposition as the second part of the ‘Steel Bridge Beda Movement’.
They say, “We are not against any development projects, but want sustainable development with people’s involvement. The earlier projects have divided our neighbourhoods, destroyed the lovely green cover along Mysore Road and Richmond Circle. These projects did not resolve traffic congestion. These projects have effectively put an end to north-south traffic flow and forced a whole network of neighbouring and feeder streets to turn into one-ways.”
Green activist and urban conservationist Vijay Nishant adds, “The government has held no consultations with citizen groups, and most infrastructure projects in the city have been unsustainable and executed at the cost of environment. The government must consult ecologists, experts and scientific institutions like IISc before taking up a massive project like this, which will involve felling of 3,000 trees and the acquisition of lots of private land.”
Right from the Sirsi Circle Flyover to the present Elevated Corridor project, poor planning and design are evident, says Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group. He adds, “The proposal for elevated roads has been around for a while, and keeps raising its head every now and then — especially nearing elections. Even the earlier projects from the 1990s, have not resulted in decongesting the city. I recall the Sirsi Road to Town Hall flyover was also pushed through with the intent of clearing up traffic congestion, as was the flyover at Richmond Road. Not only did they not clear traffic congestion, they aided it in fact.”
Now, more than ever, it is critical for us to prepare a mobility plan for Bengaluru, adds Saldanha. “This is possible by working through Ward Committees. The wards can they work together to prepare a zonal plan. Then these plans can be integrated into a city-wide mobility plan by the Metropolitan Planning ommittee. Let democratic planning processes decide what Bengaluru should be, not some scheme by the Public Works Department, Karnataka Road Development Corporation or even the BBMP. “
Apart from this, many citizens group have come together on social media to express their opposition to the project, and have taken to live streaming and other modes of protest. They have called for public consultation and for all project details to be in the public domain.The JD (S), in its manifesto, had clearly said that measures will be taken to improve public interaction by the government, and all projects costing more than ` 5 crore will be subject to public consultation. Vinay Prakash, a citizen, said on Facebook, “We want to see if the CM conducts public consultation as promised in the manifesto. Besides, there seems to be no clarity on the cost for the project, with numbers varying from `13,ooo crore to 30,000 crore. Hence, consultation with a DPR, etc is necessary.”