95-km elevated corridor: Save 9,000 cr or 3,600 trees

The ambitious 95-km elevated corridor can help Bengalureans save Rs 9,337 crore they incur annually due to congestion, the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) has argued. The fallout: as many as 3,600 trees will have to go.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s budget promise of constructing six interconnected elevated corridors in the next four years, at a cost of Rs 15,825 crore, has already churned a heated debate.

The KRDCL — the nodal agency for the mammoth project — has indicated in its feasibility study that the elevated corridor network will require removal or transplantation of 3,600 trees. This is more than four times the number of trees that was estimated to be felled for the controversial steel flyover that the previous government had to drop in the face of citizen anger.

A consortium, led by US firm AECOM, which prepared the feasibility study for the project, has estimated that traffic congestion along 28 arterial stretches in the city results in Rs 5,994 crore of travel time cost and Rs 3,343 crore in fuel cost, which add up to Rs 9,337 crore of congestion cost.

The highest congestion cost is incurred by motorists on the Krishnarajapuram-Bhattarahalli stretch of 13.6 km at Rs 2,533 crore, according to data used in the feasibility study.

A majority of roads recorded daily volumes of over 90,000 passenger car units (PCU) against a capacity ranging between 1,200 and 5,400 PCU as prescribed by the Indian Road Congress.

According to the feasibility study, the elevated corridors can help cut congestion by bringing the peak-hour PCU below the prescribed capacity. For instance, the total peak-hour PCU on the Krishnarajapuram-Goraguntepalya stretch is projected at 60,801, of which two-thirds will ply on the elevated corridor while decongesting the road below.

The elevated corridors will be designed for vehicles to move at 50-80 kmph promising a 45-minute ride anywhere in the city, the study states.

Additional chief secretary (urban development) Mahendra Jain confirmed that a large number of trees will go “given the size of the project”. He, however, did not elaborate on possible alternatives.