BENGALURU: The state government can expect active opposition from citizen groups for calling tenders on a portion of the elevated corridor project.  The move to call for tenders took place on Sunday morning only a few hours after the Karnataka Road Development Corporation  received environmental clearance for the project. This is despite widespread opposition including several campaigns and appeals against it by the public.

“Requesting for public consultation and sending around 6,000 postcards to Chief Minister Kumaraswamy’s office for the same has been ignored. We will take up every possibility to have our voice heard, be it mass mobilisation or protests. There are several issues with calling for tenders, one of it being lack of public consultation despite it being mandatory in the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961,” said Srinivas Alavilli, member of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) group.

Several groups have deemed this decision taken at top speed on Sunday morning to be ‘strange’ and ‘suspicious’. The tender was called in three packages for 22.12km of the North-South corridor starting from Baptist Hospital on Ballari road, traversing JC Nagar, Shantinagar and ending at Silk Board junction.
Environmentalist AN Yellappa Reddy and chairman of Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) wrote to the CM and Deputy CM G Parameshwara a few weeks ago regarding various environmental issues that will come up during and after the construction of the 102km project.

“The government has got environmental clearance for the project without conducting a risk analysis of what this will do to the environment, people’s health and pollution levels. Even during construction, there are tons of people in houses, malls, offices, hospitals, schools and colleges along the elevated corridor who will be affected by increased particulate matter. The tenders were called three hours after environmental clearance was given, which is strange,” said Reddy,  adding that BET is consulting with legal experts from National Law School on legal course. “We are examining under what provision this clearance was given. I will also write to the state government in a few days to detail the above aspects,” he said. 

Shaheen Shasa, member of Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV), another citizen group, told CE, “Due process has not been followed. Apart from the fact that a project of this scale has not been included in the city’s master plan, the authorities have not undergone the logical exercise of looking at the impact and alternatives. We have 50 flyovers in the city and none of them have helped the traffic situation.”
Shasa questioned the sudden move of calling for tenders without considering if such a corridor would be helpful or not and added that they are working with other citizen groups on the action to be taken next.

This is not the first time such rushed decision making has happened. Only two days ago, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) swiftly called for tenders for white-topping 92 roads in the city. This move was taken after giving less than two weeks for consultants to prepare a detailed project report (DPR). The government’s stance in this case was that they wanted to act on projects before the election code of conduct comes into place.