BENGALURU: While Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar is ambitious to get the tunnel road project rolling, a group of citizens, resident welfare organisations, citizens’ organisations in the city under the banner Bengaluru Nagarike Vedike has written a letter to Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Development Department and BBMP Commissioner urging them for public consultation on the project.
They expressed their strong concerns that a project of this magnitude in terms of financial outlay and its proposed impact on Bengaluru has even reached the stage of a draft DPR (Detailed Project Report) without following due processes laid down in the Indian Constitution and the prevailing laws of Karnataka.
The 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India mandates that the planning process be vested in a planning authority or an MPC, they said. The Vedike in the letter dated March 5 stated that they are aware of the letter of Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in which he stated that the draft DPR has been placed before the public for consultations.
The Government of Karnataka is yet to clarify precisely which body will be undertaking the role of planning for Bengaluru -- the BBMP has stepped in with a plan of this magnitude without clarifying in what capacity it is undertaking preparation of this plan, they added.
“A perusal of the present operating Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2015 would indicate that this project is not listed in the RMP. Further, the process through which this project has been proposed does not appear to conform with the provisions of the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act (KTCP Act) for Town Planning Schemes (Chapter 5).
The Government of Karnataka had also constituted BMLTA (Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority) through BMLTA Act in 2022. However it appears that the Authority envisaged in the Act has not been notified, let alone publishing a well-thought out comprehensive transportation plan for the city,” they said.
In the absence of BMLTA, adhoc decisions are sought to be made and many of these will damage the integrated transport needs of the city, the members argued.
They further highlighted in the letter that the BBMP Act 2020 mandates conformity with the KTCP Act, explicitly stated in Section 249A.
They added, “We trust that your legal department will apprise you of the correct legal position on the need to adhere to the harmonious provisions of the KTCP Act, particularly Section 249A, which prohibits granting permissions, approvals, or sanctions unless the Act’s provisions are fully complied with.”