Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Vision Group (BVG), just weeks after it was formed, had suggested an alternative to the controversial steel flyover and had even stressed that the Central Business District (CBD) be connected with the existing elevated road to enable seamless travel to the airport.
An alternative solution that was presented before the state government was an elevated road from KR Puram through SG Balekundri Circle, Cantonment, Jayamahal and Mehkri Circle. There were suggestions that the BDA should provide access points from Cubbon Park, Ambedkar Veedhi and Infantry Road for vehicles to directly get on to the elevated road and head towards Hebbal.
The experts had predicted that this would prevent vehicles from choking the Raj Bhavan Road and Chalukya Circle. Though the BDA heard this suggestion and promised the members of BVG it would respond accordingly, members say that the BDA is yet to respond and the meeting is still awaited.
While a section of experts have questioned why have a Vision Group when its members are not even consulted or their suggestions are given importance, it is evident that the state government does not want to usher in reforms in infrastructure that are ecologically sustainable. Like the members of Citizens Against Steel Flyover (CASFo) have alleged, the entire process of collecting opinions is ‘flimsy’.
Sridhar Pabbisetty of (CASFo) said, “The BDA notification is not accompanied by design specifications of the project, graphic representation and certainly no mention of trees being cut. To seek response to an idea that public has no clue about is rather strange. The detailed project report (DPR) was released only three days ago! We do not even have the transcribed records of telephone submissions made by citizens.”
The state government may be adamant to complete the Rs 1,800-crore project, but experts have resolved to pressure the government to shelve the flyover.
The state government envisaged the Bengaluru Vision Group (BVG) in a desperate attempt to pull Bengaluru out of its infrastructure morass, and entrusted its elite members with the responsibility of resource mobilization and transparent governance with e-governance solutions, among other duties.
When BVG came into existence, it was believed that there would be increased participation of citizens, organisations and industry members. However, in less than a year after the panel was formed, the government has proved that it has no regard for citizen solutions which could breathe fresh life into the dying city.
The eminent group consists of bigwigs like N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Azim Premji of Wipro, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan of Janaagraha.
