Citizens to govt: Rethink tunnel roads, prioritise public transport in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: An online petition on Change.org has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to drop two proposed tunnel road projects, calling them “costly”, “highly disruptive", and ineffective in reducing commute time.

The petition, which has gathered around 2,500 signatures in two days, asked the government to instead expand the bus fleet, metro services, and suburban rail networks.

Referring to the 17-km Hebbal–Central Silk Board tunnel and the 25-km KR Puram–Nayandahalli stretch, petitioner Rajkumar Dugar listed 11 reasons for scrapping the plans.

“The rate of growth in Bengaluru in terms of population and vehicles needs to be brought down. The ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ policy must be implemented in letter and spirit,” he said.

He argued that the tunnel roads would not reduce travel time, fuel use, costs, pollution or congestion, and pointed out that the project is twice as expensive as the metro and ten times costlier than the suburban rail per kilometre.

Despite public opposition, the Deputy Chief Minister remains keen to push ahead. The state government recently cleared administrative approval to float tenders for the Rs 17,780-crore Hebbal–Silk Board tunnel road.

A senior BBMP official said that metro cities like Mumbai and New Delhi are also exploring tunnel roads as land acquisition costs continue to soar.