Bengalureans protest against elevated corridor

Several hundred city folk — kids, teenagers, adults, the elderly and even pets — gathered at the Gandhi Statue at Sheshadri Road on Saturday morning to protest the government’s 100-km elevated road network. Chanting “Beda, beda, concrete beda”, Bengalureans protested the elevated corridor that is slated to flatten 120 trees in

Cubbon Park

, among many others in the city.

Posters at the venue read, “How is every solution an elevated corridor?” and “More trees, less greed”. Actress Sruthi Hariharan, who was present at the protest, said, “I grew up in Bengaluru and I remember needing a sweater throughout the year. And now, we can’t even sleep comfortably during summer, because it is that hot. How did we go from that to this? I am glad that we are all protesting and making our voices heard.” Apart from Sruthi, the others who gathered on Saturday morning included actors Prakash Belawadi and Arundhati Nag, and members of the ‘beda brigade’ — Priya Chetty-Rajagopal, Srinivas Alavilli and Tara Krishnaswamy.

Responding to the protests, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy tweeted, “One of the biggest hurdles in Bengaluru’s progress is traffic congestion. The #elevatedcorridor project is the solution to this.Some citizengroups r protesting agnst the project. My request to all is to come to me&raise their concerns.I will listen with an open mind to ur feedback (sic).”