Activists fine-tuning strategy to fight elevated corridor project

BENGALURU: While citizens did not waste even a single day to register their opposition to the Rs 15,825-crore elevated corridor project by calling up their MLAs, the stage has been set for a more organised, articulate approach to countering the proposal.
Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) will hold discussions with experts and their volunteers will hear all arguments and form an informed opinion and gameplan.They’re also seeking an audience with the chief minister and the Bengaluru development minister to petition them before resorting to protests.
Srinivas Alavilli, member, CfB, said there was no blind opposition to all government projects, but an attempt to understand the logic behind such plans. A meeting today of volunteers and extended citizen network will discuss the issue and formulate an action plan.
However, the project is not opposed by all. R K Misra, member of the Bangalore Vision Group and urban expert, is one of the visionaries of the project in 2006 and believes it will enhance road capacity to boost public transport.
“There are only 1500km of roads in the city with a population of 1.3 crore and 73 lakh vehicles. The last major road built in the city was the Outer Ring Road in 2000 when there were only 15 lakh vehicles. Without enhancing infrastructure, where will the additional buses, which everyone is clamouring for, even fit? Public transport works only if there is accessibility, affordability and availability,” he said.
Several others are putting forth the oft-repeated logic that more flyovers will only move congestion from one point to another, without actually resolving it. Ashish Verma, professor at IISc and president of Transportation Research Group of India (TRG), said the proposal failed on all counts of alleviating congestion, reducing travel time and reducing vehicular emission.
“For anything to make business sense, it has to be executed with maximum output for every unit of investment. Had the announcement been for additional 95km of Metro line, we would be very happy but the government will incur minimum output at maximum expenditure. If the desire is to provide a short-term solution, it must be done at a low cost,” he said.