Network against 'illegal' transport projects

Various communities directly and indirectly affected by the ongoing and proposed transport projects in the City, came together to secure their rights by forming an association on Tuesday.

Leo F Saldanha of the Environment Support Group, who spearheaded the forum said that the new association, called the Bangalore Transportation Projects Impacted Communities Network (BATPIC), will resist illegal urban transport projects and promote progressive solutions beneficial to the City. 

Saldanha said civic authorities had come up with various road-related projects including the widening of 216 roads, signal-free corridors and mega projects like Metrorail, mono rail, light rail, high speed rail, etc. 

“The question before us is how many of these projects are holistic and why some of these projects are being imposed on an unwilling public. In some cases High Court orders are also blatantly ignored and there is hardly anybody to listen to the woes of those affected,” he said.

A Vidya Shankar of Bengaluru South Residents’ Welfare and Cultural Association said civic agencies were causing confusion in their efforts to widen the Outer Ring Road for a stretch of 14.5 kms between the Silk Board and Mysore Road. 

“None of the public representative care for us,” he said, adding that BATPIC has been founded since genuine concerns of public were not being respected by officials, despite years of attempts to engage members of the State and City governments. 

Dr Meenakshi Bharat, a social activist and resident of Malleswaram said that in the name of mega projects, the State government had been destroying the core of Bangalore and creating problems for the people living there for many years.