Bengaluru: Metro, suburban rail to connect city to airport, says KJ George
Bengaluru: Travel to the Kempegowda International Airport
(KIAL) is all set to get easier and faster. Besides the Metro rail that will run from Yeshwanthpur to the KIAL, the proposed suburban rail will run from Ramnagar to Kengeri, from Tumakuru to Yeshwanthpur and from Yeshwanthpur to KIAL.
Revealing this here on Tuesday, Bengaluru Development Minister, K J George said a detailed project report was being prepared for the projects. The minister, who was participating in a 'Meet the Press' programme organised by the Bangalore Press Club, claimed that the controversial steel flyover to the airport was first proposed by the BJP government in the state and the Congress government was unnecessarily drawing flak for it. “The project was dropped due to baseless allegations,” he lamented.
Denying BJP city president, N R Ramesh’s allegations that Rs 65 crore has been siphoned off in the government's ambitious Indira Canteen project, he said the charge was entirely false.
Assuring that encroachers on government land, lakes and stormwater drains would be removed, he said officials had identified the encroachments and they would be cleared soon.
The minister assured that his government was committed to cleaning up the highly polluted Bellandur and Varthur lakes and also promised to provide every major lake in the city with a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) by 2020. “We are treating 80 per cent of the city’s sewage already and are in discussion with experts to treat the remaining 20 per cent,” he said.
As for the underground drainage system, he said 800 kms of it had already been completed and work on another 142 kms would begin soon. “The government plans to extend it to another 400 kms," he added, revealing that a Rs 1800 crore plan had been drawn up to supply treated sewage water to parts of Anekal, Kolar and Chikballapur.
To make sure Bengaluru was not defaced with posters, he said the BBMP had already started booking cases against those found pasting them in the city.
