Group seeks boosting of public transport facilities

Representatives of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) met Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara over the elevated corridor issue on Wednesday.

Representatives Tara Krishnaswamy and Srinivas Alavilli met Parameshwara along with transportation expert Professor Ashish Verma of CiSTUP IISc and actor-director Prakash Belawadi regarding the proposed elevated corridors.

"We expressed our concerns that the elevated corridors would not solve the traffic plague of Bengaluru, but would instead breed more congestion. We shared information on vehicular data and the urgent need to increase modal share of public transport to 80%. As reinforced by the current C40 conference, we requested that massive investments be made in suburban rail, buses and metro along with pedestrianisation as viable and sustainable solutions to Bengaluru's traffic congestion," CfB said in a release.

Verma presented the IISc's sustainable transport measures for a liveable city. In response, the deputy chief minister promised to hold public consultations on the project and solicit a wide variety of opinions and assess the solutions. He indicated that elevated corridors would be implemented only if they were the right solution for the mobility problems.

Tara said: "We are glad to have presented the voices of the citizens, and the deputy chief minister kindly made time for it. There are no silver bullet solutions for traffic, and projects like elevated corridors (only) worsen the traffic congestion and add to the pollution."

She added that Parameshwara immediately understood the plague of city flyovers from the presentation and how traffic would clog both above and below the flyover.

"The combination of a full-fledged suburban rail, bus and metro along with pedestrian support is the only viable option and the same Rs 33,000 crore must be invested in that," Tara said.

Alavilli said: "Bengaluru needs a new strategy to tackle traffic and the deputy chief minister expressed his willingness to join a public seminar that the CfB plans to organise soon".