Tunnel road project row | 'Nitin Gadkari backed idea, will Tejasvi contradict him': Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad

'As recently as April this year, Gadkari recommended tunnel roads and triple-layered flyovers. So, this tunnel road project is being done as per his recommendation', Arshad said.

Bengaluru: Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad on Friday said Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had backed the idea of a tunnel road to decongest Bengaluru, and criticised BJP MP Tejasvi Surya for opposing the project.

"As recently as April this year, Gadkari recommended tunnel roads and triple-layered flyovers. So, this tunnel road project is being done as per his recommendation. If Surya is more intelligent and knowledgeable than Gadkari, let him say that the union minister is wrong," Arshad said at a news conference.

"The BJP does not want any change or infrastructure in Bengaluru. The BJP opposed a flyover our government wanted to build to decongest Hebbal. We dropped it. But when BJP came to power, it did nothing to solve the problem. Even today, there's congestion at Hebbal," Arshad said. "When will BJP join hands with the government to develop Bengaluru instead of opposing everything?"

Arshad countered Surya's charge that the Congress government was neglecting public transport. "Thanks to the Shakti scheme, the BMTC is offering 48 lakh daily trips. This number was 33 lakh when BJP was in power," he said. "During BJP, metro ridership was 6 lakh. Today, it's 10 lakh."

Arshad also said that his government is procuring 4,500 buses, which will get added to the existing fleet of 7,000. "Also under our government, we've provided metro connectivity to Whitefield and Electronics City," he said.

The MLA asked Surya why he did not raise these issues when the BJP was in power in the state. "When the BJP was in power, the discussion was about puncturewallahs, halal, who should wear what, whom should people marry and so on," Arshad said. "I'm happy that Surya, at least now, is speaking about development instead of his resorting to his toxic communal agenda," he said.