Days after taking charge, the new Urban Development minister B.A. Basavaraja has announced a plan for a 14.2-km-long flyover from Indiranagar BDA Complex to Medahalli via K.R. Puram. The minister pitched it as a solution to the traffic congestion to and from Kempegowda International Airport and said it would cost ₹200 crore. The flyover will integrate with the K.R. Puram flyover.
Incidentally, Mr. Basavaraja is the MLA of K.R. Puram. Sources in BBMP said initial feasibility study was under way.
However, it has drawn criticism from a section of citizens groups who have been championing public transport. Questions have also been raised as to how he could announce the project when it was the chief minister who held the charge of the Bengaluru Development Department.
“We have built 55 flyovers in the city over the last two decades, but the traffic congestion problem has only worsened. We appeal to all policy makers to take a flyover holiday, invest in public transport, give it a chance and if congestion is not reduced let them build flyovers again,” said Srinivas Alavilli of Citizens for Bengaluru. CfB emerged from the Steel Flyover Beda movement and has opposed the proposed 102-km-long network of elevated corridors as well.
Many residents of K.R. Puram, too, are sceptical of a flyover solving the traffic problem, as the hanging bridge built in 2003 — which they had championed — did little to ease congestion.
“I spearheaded a signature campaign and collected around one lakh signatures from Hosakote to Kengeri to demand a flyover at K.R. Puram in the early 2000s. But I have now learnt by experience that flyovers are not the solution. It creates a heat island and contributes to a rise in temperature in the vicinity. I do not think we need the proposed flyover,” said Purushottaman P., from K.R. Puram Rising.