Bengaluru steel flyover, not benched after all?

Bengaluru: Top sources have told Deccan Chronicle that contrary to the perception that the Siddaramaiah government had backed off from going ahead with the steel flyover project after the four week injunction by the National Green Tribunal Chennai bench, the state government was in fact, exploring every option on how to go ahead with building the project that they have named the "Elevated Highway."

The nomenclature will be critical when they seek to counter the charge that they have not met the environmental concerns of the NGT.

Additional Chief Secretary Mahendra Jain told Deccan Chronicle “the main flaw in the NGT's pitch is that this is a project to build a highway in the centre of the city, and therefore, does not come under the Green Tribunal's purview.”

The controversial steel flyover, that the government proposes to construct between Chalukya Circle and Hebbal came a cropper when faced with an injunction from the National Green Tribunal Chennai bench. An affidavit by the BDA in Karnataka high court complicated matters further when it said it was not going ahead with the '1800 cr project.

However sources in government told Deccan Chronicle that the government was in fact, trying to "fix" various issues such as reducing cost by cutting down VAT on items used for the project, and overcoming or circumventing the legal hurdles to make the project a reality.