Tejasvi Surya slams CM Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar for ‘neglecting Yellow Line’

Bengaluru: Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya on Thursday accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar of neglecting the Yellow Line Metro project for over two and a half years.

Surya told reporters here that neither the CM nor the DCM showed any interest in the project during this
period.

“As soon as the PM’s visit on August 10 was confirmed, they rushed to go on a publicity tour pertaining to the project,” he said.

The MP said work on the metro line began in 2018 and was originally expected to be completed by 2021. However, delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and land acquisition issues pushed back the timeline. 

He lashed out at the ruling Congress for failing to support the project, by not addressing land acquisition hurdles or even appointing a full-time managing director for Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.

Responding to questions about who invited the prime minister for the inauguration, Surya dismissed such queries as irrelevant.

“What matters is that the new line should be inaugurated without delay,” the MP said.

He said Bengaluru was on the verge of becoming the city with the second-largest Metro network in India after Delhi.

Before Modi became PM in 2014, Bengaluru’s Metro connectivity was just 7.5 km. With the inauguration of the new line on August 10, the city’s metro network will expand to nearly 100 km, Surya said.