The Karnataka City Growth Division has referred the Detailed Undertaking Report (DPR) of the 16 km-long North-South tunnel highway mission connecting Hebbal to Silk Board Junction in Bengaluru to an knowledgeable committee constituted by the federal government. The committee is chaired by S S Heggaradi, govt director (civil), Bangalore Metro Rail Company Restricted (BMRCL).
The event comes after Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was extensively criticised for the ‘botched’ Detailed Undertaking Report (DPR) ready by Rodic Consultants at a price of Rs 9 crore. The report was slammed by residents for together with obtrusive errors, together with a mismatch in visitors evaluation and underplaying environmental issues of the mission. Subsequently, the civic company had additionally imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh in opposition to the consultants for the alleged ‘copy-paste’ job.
A authorities order issued on this regard on April 7 states that the committee goals to confirm the technical and monetary facets of the bold city tunnel highway mission mooted by Deputy Chief Minister D Okay Shivakumar, aligning with Nationwide Freeway 7. The choice follows a authorities order approving the development of the underground vehicular tunnel, supposed to alleviate Bengaluru’s persistent visitors congestion.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath had sought administrative approval for the mission, submitting a DPR outlining the tunnel’s design and prices. Nevertheless, a preliminary assessment by the City Growth Division revealed a scarcity of specialized experience inside its technical cell to guage the proposal.
“Recognising the complexity of tunnel building, the federal government opted to kind an knowledgeable committee to conduct a complete evaluation,” the order reads. The committee’s mandate contains:
📌 Verifying the DPR’s completeness: Making certain all important parts, map designs, and basic parts are included within the BBMP’s report.
📌 Checking for redundancies: Figuring out any unrealistic or pointless parts within the proposal to streamline the mission.
📌Making certain value accuracy: Confirming that the estimated prices are satisfactory and real looking, stopping budgetary overruns.
📌 Highlighting omissions: Detecting any crucial parts lacking from the DPR that would influence the mission’s success.
📌 Offering suggestions: Providing advisory inputs to reinforce the mission’s design and execution.
The BBMP has been directed to supply all obligatory amenities, data, and paperwork to assist the committee’s work. The panel is tasked with submitting its findings inside three weeks. When The Indian Categorical contacted the committee chairperson Heggaradi for feedback, he said that he was but to obtain the official order copy.
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Nevertheless, city mobility specialists have criticised the appointment of a BMRCL official as the pinnacle of a panel reviewing the DPR of a mission that straight competes with the Bengaluru Metro.
City mobility knowledgeable Satya Arikutharam mentioned, “The BBMP’s Rs 14 crore research on the tunnel highway mission has not given sufficient confidence to the City Growth Division that it has referred the DPR to an knowledgeable committee. However it’s shocking that the committee is being headed by a BMRCL govt who, in a manner, is an affected social gathering as a result of Bengaluru Metro Section 3A runs parallel to the tunnel highway. Additional, the committee lacks specialists on geology, hydrology, and electrical and mechanical domains. Not to mention the mandate of the committee, the necessity for the mission has been very weak for the reason that planning course of itself.”
A latest research by the IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab, led by Prof Ashish Verma, has raised issues in regards to the adversarial impacts of proposed tunnel roads on Bengaluru’s Mass Fast Transit Programs (MRTS), together with Metro and Suburban Rail networks.
The research reveals that introducing double-decker roads and tunnel corridors might result in a major shift from public to personal car utilization. The mode share for MRTS is estimated to drop from 43.5 per cent to 42.2 per cent by 2041 below these situations, decreasing total public transport and non-motorised transport (NMT) utilization from 81.9 per cent to 75.6 per cent.
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The research reveals that the Metro system might expertise a ridership discount of 6.48 per cent on main traces below the tunnel highway situation.
Additional, the feasibility report of the North-South tunnel hall signifies that it’s going to overlap with the Metro route at 9 locations.
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