BENGALURU: Over 2,000 volunteers and members of 60 citizens’ groups staged a massive protest on Saturday against the controversial elevated corridor project after the government recently floated tenders for it despite opposition from various quarters. The protest was in addition to several steps being taken by citizens to pressure the government to scrap the project.
The protest garnered the support of around 1,200 people from many Residents Welfare Associations. The protesters included volunteers from Citizens for Sustainability, Whitefield Rising, Cubbon Park, Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike, Bangalore Apartments Federation, I Change Indiranagar, Environment Support Group, Bengaluru Suburban Rail Users and others. They demanded cancellation of tenders, raising slogans like “TenderRadduMadi” (scrap the tender).
The KRDCL has floated tenders for the north-south segment of the project under three packages at a cost of Rs 4,612 crore. The overall project cost is pegged at Rs 33,000 crore including land acquisition.
‘Elevated corridor will lead to chopping of 3,600 trees’
A member of Citizens for Bengaluru, who was part of the protest, said, “The state government should at least realise that it has to shelve the project which is not in favour of the public. The project will cost the green cover of the city 3,600 fully-grown trees.”
Theatre personality and activist Prakash Belawadi said, “The government should consider the public demand and then go ahead with such projects. We did not want to protest but the government’s attitude has prompted us to do so.”
“The government should first explain how it is going to help us and have a discussion forum to involve everyone in this. It is hardly democratic when the government goes ahead with projects even without public consultation,” he added.
Srinivas Alavilli of CfB said, “This is absolutely not right that the government is taking up the project amid opposition from the public. The elevated corridor will not help in decongesting the city’s traffic, instead it will result in axing of 3,600 trees. The government should cancel the tender and hold meetings with citizens in this matter.”