In a sudden move the ruling Congress Government in Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has scrapped the controversial Bengaluru Steel flyover project on Thursday. The State BJP has been vehemently making allegations of alleged kickbacks of `65 crore has been
paid to Siddaramaiah’s family in this project.
After the meeting of the local MlAs in Bengaluru, Development Minister KJ George announced that the project has been scarped. Briefing reporters, KJ George said, “We have cancelled the project as we have been forced to prove our sincerity. There are corruption charges being levelled against us when not a single rupee has been taken as kickback by us.”
“We do not want to take the blame for something that we have not done, so we are dropping the project. The steel bridge project had become a pain point for us as the media has been speaking
on a daily-basis about corruption in it,” he said.
The Congress leaders feel the scrapping of the controversial flyover is an embarrassment for Karnataka’s Congress Government, which had earlier decided to go ahead with the project overriding protests.
They also feel it will have an impact on the Assembly polls.
“I have told the authorities to take the opinion of the people. It was meant to ease traffic. If people don’t want it, then why should we go ahead with it,” Siddaramaiah said in a changing his stance.
Reacting to the decision, Yeddyurappa alleged that to escape from charges the State Government has taken decision to drop the project.
“Enquiry should be held into the charges about sending money to Congress high command and receiving kickback. Siddaramaiah and other Ministers involved are afraid that their corruption will become public if inquiry was held and hence this decision was taken. But I will not rest till enquiry was ordered.”
The steel flyover project recently turned into a bone of contention between the ruling Congress and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Citizen groups, environmentalists and urban experts suggested deploying more buses on the route rather than cut green cover for the flyover to be built.
The Chennai bench of the National Green Tribunal on October 28, 2016 stayed the 6.9-km project from Chalukya Circle in the city centre to Hebbal junction in the northern suburb, connecting the international airport road at Devanahalli and National Highway 4 towards Hyderabad.
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) was the nodal agency for the Rs 1791-crore project and engineering and construction major l&T was to execute it, as its lowest bidder in a global tender.
The expensive six-lane project, ostensibly meant to ease the gridlock on the busy thoroughfare, faced vehement opposition from civic society and urban experts as it would have resulted in the loss of about 800 trees and their green canopy en-route to the city’s outskirts.
State’s former Additional Chief Secretary V. Balasubramanian and Citizens Action Forum President N.S. Mukunda jointly filed the writ petition before the Tribunal against the BDA from executing the project as it would have caused environmental damage to the garden city.
Several Congress legislators, including Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Dinesh Gundu Rao had mounted pressure on Bengaluru in charge minister to drop the controversial steel bridge project as it was tarnishing the image of the government. “The proposed steel bridge is being portrayed as a monument of Congress corruption by the opposition parties. Why should we take the blame when our intention is to improve BengaluruIJ” Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
The project drew flak from citizens and green activists as it required axing of trees and was also termed as an unsustainable solution to reduce city’s traffic woes. The bridge to be built through the greenest parts of the city would have required cutting of 812 trees.