JOIN USWill abide by NGT order on steel flyover, says George
Bengaluru Development Minister K J George on Wednesday said that the government will abide by the National Green Tribunal order on the proposed steel flyover project.
Speaking to DH, he said in a democratic set-up, people had the right to approach court.
‘No personal interest’
“I have no personal interest in the project. It is a project of the state government. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced it in the budget, the cabinet has approved it and it is needed to decongest the city,” he said.
The minister, however, said that the steel flyover was an integral part of the proposed elevated corridor across the city. “It is not a project in isolation,” he said.
On October 28, the NGT bench in Chennai had given a four-week stay on the Rs 1,791-crore project, following a petition filed by Citizens’ Action Forum and retired IAS officer V Balasubramanian, saying that environment assessment had not be done.
The flyover is part of the 120-km elevated north-south, east-west corridors, the minister said. Also, this is not the only solution to decongest traffic towards north Bengaluru, where development is happening at a rapid pace.
Equal importance
The government is giving equal importance to other projects like Metro, Monorail (which will be a feeder service to Metro) and alternative routes to the airport, where the second runway is being constructed.
George said that the solutions suggested by the people and opposition leaders, to build small flyovers at places like Cauvery Junction and Mehkri Circle, were not long-term ones.
“Using steel to construct the flyover was not suggested by the government or me. It was suggested by a technical committee of experts comprising road expert Dr C Justo, retired IISc professor B R Srinivas Murthy, retired PWD chief engineers Chandrashekar and T D Mohan, retired defence chief engineer M V Rao and BDA engineer member P N Nayak. Looking at the traffic volume, they suggested that by using steel, the flyover can be constructed faster when compared to concrete,” he said.
He said transparency was maintained in the project. All details of the flyover have been put up on the BDA website. The tender details were put up for four months on the e-procurement portal. Also, 36 people have obtained the tender document from BDA.
“Earlier, when projects were taken up, so many questions were never raised. There is transparency, as and when people ask me or the BDA for details, whatever information can be given under law is being shared. Finances are not a problem for the project. BDA is a part of the government and the steel flyover is a government project, so there is no dearth of funds,” he added.
JC Road flyover project on
The minister said that the proposed steel flyover on JC Road will also be undertaken and the work on this was progressing.