The 90 km elevated corridor got sliced away for 21 km stage. In a major decision, BS Yediyurappa lead government canceled the existing tender for corridor’s first stage. A rejoicing moment for citizen’s moment, Karnataka Chief Minister on Monday called for fresh tenders for the project.
BJP Government Cuts The First Phase ECR project
The first stage consisting of 21.54 km from the Elevated Corridor Road(ECR) was estimated to cost around Rs 6855 crore. The Bharatiya Janatha Party government on Monday passed an order canceling the approvals given to controversial Corridor project.
“There have been accusations about irregularities in the tender process and large-scale illegalities in preparing the action plan for the project. Based on such complaints and detailed reports in various sections of the media,t is ordered to cancel the tenders immediately and prepare a fresh action plan by evaluating the actual cost,” the Chief Minister said.
Not money but losing the environment
The previous combine government of Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), which was lead by former HD Kumarswammy had continued to approve projects (87.87km ECR) to reduce chaos amongst traffic. People came out on the streets to protest the government’s move to construct the ECR. The reason was not because of the heavy cost but the protest was for the environmental destruction this project could do.
Other than that, people also opposed that the project got a nod, without consultation the citizens. This act prompted various citizen groups to take to the streets against the government. Numerous numbers of citizens had gone the streets protesting the enormous structure and instead asked sustainable resolutions to the city’s traffic problem. They suggested more reliable roads, more affordable and more dependable bus service, local trains and extension of the metro railways.
Canceling the first phase was welcomed by many citizens associations, “We welcome the decision by the CM to cancel the ill-conceived project tenders. March-2019 was a time when thousands had gathered to ask the government to cancel the tenders. Now, we urge the CM to completely suspend the project and focus on encouraging public transport in our city,” said a citizen who had voiced against the project.
