Experts speak out against BDA's steel flyover

As the government and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) are keen on going ahead with construction of the 6.9 km steel flyover, there are many voices against it. They opine that the flyover is not the solution as it will shift the problem from one point to another.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Ashish Verma, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Associate Faculty at Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, IISc, said any large scale infrastructure project like road widening, grade separators (flyovers/ underpasses) are generally short-term solutions and only help in shifting the point of congestion from one place to other rather than eliminating the congestion.

They should be undertaken only after a good planning and after a clear understanding of its implications on overall present and future mobility within the city. This is important because implementing such projects involves huge financial burden at the cost of public money as well as very high social, environmental and economic impacts.

Besides these, such projects also make substantial impact on overall aesthetics and living environment of the city. Often, those living close to such project locations (especially, flyovers and underpasses) are not the beneficiaries rather they are the recipients of all negative impacts like, increase in air and noise pollution, loss of accessibility and loss of aesthetics. Such project cannot be justified where space is a constraint, he added.

G Ramesh, Associate Professor, Centre for Public Policy, IIMB, was keen to know the opinion of the advisory committee and policy makers on  the design and need. Railway or Metro connectivity should have been provided at the time when the airport was constructed. Now with all these projects, they are preemiting Metro. The government's planning has been just catching up for the last 20 years and not for 20 years ahead. Instead of improving public transport, government is going the American way of putting all this on road, he said.

Bangalore Political Action Committee Vice President T V Mohandas Pai said the flyover will only shift congestion from one place to another and will mess up the Central Business District (CBD) area. There is a need for networked traffic across the city through elevated corridors connecting the four sides.