‘Is it a matrimonial project?’ Tejasvi Surya slams D K Shivakumar over tunnel

Bengaluru: Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday hit back at Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar for justifying the Rs 20,000 crore tunnel road project by linking car ownership to social status and marriage prospects. 

“Is this a matrimonial project?” Surya asked, questioning the rationale at a press conference, stating that only 12% of Bengaluru residents own cars and reminded the Deputy Chief Minister that a major chunk of citizens — including families — continue to use public transport.

Countering Surya, Shivakumar claimed that a majority of the BJP MLAs were in favour of the project and only former minister R Ashoka and Surya were “speaking against the project.”

Surya said the government’s policy should ensure that 70% of people use public transport.

“All existing projects are moving at a snail’s pace. Instead of starting new ones, the government should complete the pending ones first,” Surya said.

“A developed country is not a place where the poor use cars, but where the rich use public transport,”
Surya stated, quoting a famous line.

He described the proposed tunnel road project as “unscientific and disastrous” accusing the government of acting in undue haste to complete the detailed project report (DPR) without conducting an environment impact study or preparing the drainage design, disaster management plan and traffic projections for 25 years. “The soil data is incomplete and the borelog data is insufficient,”
he said. 

“The BJP will not just fight against the project legally but will also launch a people’s movement to stop it,” he added, referring to his public interest litigation (PIL) that is listed for hearing in the Karnataka High Court on December 9.

The government, he said, has claimed that 37% of traffic has reduced at Silk Board after the opening of the Yellow Line, and peak-hour congestion along the Purple Line has fallen by 12–14%. “This shows that people using cars are shifting towards the metro. When this is the reality, why is the government focusing only on the tunnel road?” he asked, questioning how just 18 km of road could magically solve Bengaluru’s congestion.

Surya instead urged the government to ensure that Bengaluru gets a 317-km Metro network by 2031 as envisaged in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP). “This will help citizens access a metro station within five minutes. And if this is made possible, there will be no traffic congestion,” he said, adding the government must discourage the use of private vehicles. “Let us build Bengaluru for people, not for contractors
and cars.”

According to the plan, he said the tunnel road is expected to save travel time by a meagre 13 minutes in 2031 and 15 minutes in 2041. “Such a massive investment is not justified,” he argued.

Surya instead suggested building modern trams, which is a cost-effective and scalable mass rapid transit system and can carry up to 15,000 passengers per hour. He also said that more people in Bengaluru die due to road-related accidents than terrorist attacks in the country. “This must be addressed by improving footpaths and ensuring pothole-free roads,” he added.