Ruling Congress rallies behind Rs 1800 cr Steel Flyover Project
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Oct 21: Even as the Opposition BJP and JD(S) parties along with civil society leaders and a large cross-section of the citizens of Bengaluru have been vehemently opposing the Siddaramaiah regime’s Rs 1800 crore Steel Flyover Project from Basaveshwara Circle near Vidhana Soudha till the Esteem Mall off Hebbal, the ruling Congress party has solidly rallied behind the State Government.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and MLC Rizwan Arshad, who addressed a joint press conference at the State party office on Thursday, said the proposed steel flyover project is the only answer to the present traffic chaos on the Ballari road in the City.
They said the State Government has announced the steel flyover project in the budget and opposing the project on grounds of financial cost and removal of trees was not justifiable.
The Congress leaders contended that the Rs 1791 crore steel flyover project on the Ballari road was very much necessary.
The Opposition parties, particularly the BJP, were protesting against the project to gain political mileage, the Congress leaders argued.
There was no substance in the BJP’s opposition to it since it was first mooted during the Yeddyurappa government, they claimed.
KJ George claims solution to traffic congestion
Meanwhile, Bengaluru City Development Minister K J George, who separately spoke to reporters in Vidhana Soudha, accused some organisations for trying to their individual opinion as public opinion in regard to construction of the steel bridge.
George claimed that only a handful of people were against this project and that group was being supported by some political parties.
“The opinion of these organisations could not be considered as people's opinion,’’ the minister said and criticised them for demanding that the State Government should listen to their dictum.
George said it was not possible since the State was being ruled by a democratically elected government.
The Congress government had announced its intention to build a steel bridge to ease traffic congestion. It was decided to go ahead with the project only after studying Detailed Project Report from all angles and other technical issues.
Unfortunately, none of them were opposing the good number of bridges being constructed in Malleshwaram, the constituency of former BJP minister S Suresh Kumar.
As part of the anti-steel bridge campaign, George said many individuals were trying to mislead people by using social media like facebook and twitter. It would be difficult to examine whether those accounts were fake or genuine.
No ulterior motive in Steel Bridge
"The State Government does not have any ulterior motive in this project except to address the current traffic problem. The Bangalore Development Authority had already put details of this project on website to enable people to study it in detail,’’ he said.
The project was being executed in most transparent manner and there was no need to hide anything. It was true that the cost of project had gone up by Rs 450 crore for which report had been sought from the technical team to examine. The project cost issue would be handled by government after receipt of the report, he explained.
The minister refused to divulge more details on the project since the matter was pending before the court. The State Government had high regards for court and it would respect judgement.
He said the proposed steel bridge would be toll road which would be fixed in the State Cabinet.
However, the road below that bridge was non-toll road. A state of the art toll plaza would be constructed, he added.