Opposing the tunnel road project in Bengaluru, the BJP launched a signature campaign at Lal Bagh Sunday to gather public opinion against the implementation of the project. Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, who kicked off the campaign, said that the tunnel road was a ‘VIP project’ that would not benefit 90 per cent of Bengaluru’s population.
Raising the slogan ‘Save Lal Bagh, Protect Bengaluru’, Ashoka objected to the acquisition of a portion of Lal Bagh land for the project. Protecting parks like Lal Bagh is the duty of the government, he said.
Adding that the middle class, lower middle class or poor families will not benefit from the tunnel road, the LoP contended that using the road will be more expensive than getting airlifted to the airport from parts of the city.
The implementing agency has to raise loans to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore for the project for which tenders are already invited, Ashoka noted and demanded that the government first clear the dues kept pending to various contractors. Apart from him, Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya, MLAs C K Ramamurthy and Uday Garudachar, were among the participants.
Responding to the campaign, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the Bengaluru development minister, reiterated that he was ready to form a committee under Ashoka and have experts of his choice in it to give suggestions to ease the traffic congestion in the city. “The project is for the welfare of the public. I have studied the complete project. I am not a fool to spoil Lal Bagh,” he said, defending the necessity of the tunnel road.
Criticising the opposition to the project, he asked whether the Metro lines in the city did not have tunnels. He accused the BJP of jeopardising projects meant to ease traffic bottlenecks in the city and referred to the Steel Flyover project proposed during the previous tenure of the Congress in the state.
On Ashoka’s allegations that he was threatening BJP leaders like Surya and Ramamurthy, the deputy CM said that Surya was a “big leader and was very intelligent. He opened the flight door itself. Went to the USA and tried to meet US President Donald Trump without permission and was pulled up for that.”
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“Surya says he does not want a car. But, ahead of his marriage, he came to me with an application for a new car. Let him travel without a car. Let all BJP leaders use public transport,” Shivakumar added.