Is govt developing a ‘tunnel vision’?

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also in charge of Bengaluru development wants to visit Singapore with senior bureaucrats to study the underground road network there so that it may be replicated back home. While Shivakumar’s plan involves construction of short tunnels at hotspots like K R Puram, Public Works Minister Satish Jharkiholi recently met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari with a proposal to construct 65 km of tunnel roads in Bengaluru. Simultaneously, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on an idea to link the city’s arterial roads through a 30-km long tunnel that would cost a whopping Rs 50,000 crore. It seems various parts of the government have suddenly developed ‘tunnel vision’ and each is unable to see what the other is doing.

Singapore started building its underground Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in the 1980s, and alongside it, tunnel roads, too. Today, about 10 per cent of Singapore’s roads are underground. The tunnels are almost exclusively used by cars; buses, goods carriers, bicycles and two-wheelers are not allowed. Those in favour of underground roads claim that they reduce traffic congestion and are also environment-friendly as they do not involve felling of trees. They also overcome other physical hurdles that exist on the surface level. Advocates of public transport argue, however, that tunnels are not the solution as they cater to only car-users. According to them, a single-lane tunnel road can accommodate 1,800 passengers per hour, whereas the metro can serve 69,000 passengers when trains run every 1.5 minutes. While the government is free to evaluate various solutions to ease Bengaluru’s traffic, it cannot overlook the obvious. The immediate solution lies in strengthening public transport by augmenting the number of buses, increasing the frequency of metro trains, last-mile connectivity and early completion of the suburban rail network. While cities around the world, including Singapore, are disincentivising the use of private vehicles, Bengaluru’s authorities are moving in the opposite direction. It is time our decision-makers got their priorities right.

What is most disturbing in Shivakumar’s recent statement, however, is that he would ‘bulldoze’ his ideas through and go ahead with the construction of whatever infrastructure projects he deems necessary, rather than back down as the previous Siddaramaiah government had done over a controversial steel bridge project when it faced public protests. This is a totally anti-democratic attitude. One hopes the statement was a mere show of bravado and he will not put that into action. Politicians can run roughshod over public opinion at their own peril. Citizens have the first say on all issues concerning Bengaluru, not politicians and bureaucrats.