Siddaramaiah braces to defend steel bridge

Belagavi: With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) extending its stay on the construction of  the controversial steel flyover in Bengaluru, Chief Minister, Siddarmaiah  held a closed door meeting on Thursday with the officials concerned to explore ways to get the stay vacated at its next hearing on December 6.

Going by official sources, the Bengaluru Development Authority is likely to contest the NGT stay on the ground that it was not given a prior hearing on the project, that the petition against the bridge had been filed under section 8(B) of the NGT Act  pertaining to  Town and Area Development that has nothing to do with the bridge, and that its Palace Ground road widening project is likely to claim hundreds of trees anyway.

The state government is reportedly quite confident of getting the stay vacated on these three grounds. "The high court has already set a deadline for the state government to carry out the Palace Road widening project, which will result in felling of 540 of the 840 trees that are required to be axed for the proposed steel flyover project. The state government has sought  permission from the Tree Authority to fell these trees," said sources.

The fact that the petition has been filed  under section 8(b) of the NGT Act gives the government technical grounds to dismiss it, they note.  "Town and Area Development refers to creation of new layouts or new habitation in place of forest or green cover. But the steel flyover is neither and therefore this section cannot apply to it," the officer contended.

Flyover will be ready in 2 years: George
The government intended to complete the proposed steel bridge between Basaveshwara Circle and  Columbia Asia junction in two years, once work began on it,  Bengaluru Development Minister,  K.J. George informed the Legislative Council on Thursday.

Replying to Capt Ganesh Karnik of the BJP, he said the bridge would not only solve the traffic chaos on the road to the international airport but help motorists travelling towards Basaveshwara Circle, BDA, Mekri Circle, and Sanjay Nagar.

While the National Green Tribunal had temporarily stayed the project, he said the government was hopeful of getting the okay to build it. "Our commitment is to complete the construction of the steel bridge within two years from the date of starting work," the minister stressed, clarifying that no toll would be collected from the steel bridge users.

He  claimed that no technical committee had said the  bridge could be built for 50 per cent less than the estimated cost of Rs 1791 crore.

Recalling that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had already inspected alternate routes to the airport such as the Tumkur-Jalahalli, Nagawara-Hennur, Dubbagundi and Sarjapur roads, he said the Kempegowda International Airport Limited (KIAL)  too had decided to have a second entry point to it.  Around 10 acres was being acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board to provide the necessary land to the airport.

 Moving on, the minister said a Detailed Project Report (DPR) had been prepared for the 120 km long elevated corridor, which  could cost upto Rs30,000 crore to build.