Bengaluru: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has expressed his reservation over the Karnataka Government's ambitious tunnel road project planned in Bengaluru saying tunnel roads are not suitable and financially viable options to decongest city traffic.
"Tunnel roads are not suitable for decongesting roads in cities like Bengaluru. Many urban transport experts have said this on many occasions. Moreover, these roads come with very high costs as a one-kilometer tunnel road costs Rs 1000 crore," the union minister said during an interaction with prominent citizens of Bengaluru on Saturday.
Rail networks and metro train systems will help ease the lives of people in metro cities. Major cities across the world have adopted this model. "So I feel, Bengaluru also needs more and more railway-related transport systems to commuting easy for Bengalureans," he added.
Karnataka government has planned to build an 18-km long tunnel road from Hebbal Flyover to Central Silk Board Junction at a cost of Rs 12,690 crore. Soon it is expected to float global tenders.
Vaishnaw also expressed concern over the slow pace of work on the suburban rail project being implemented by Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-Ride). "In order to speed up the work, the ministry has decided to appoint a nodal officer for the project. Soon a formal requisition will be submitted to the state government in this regard," he said.
Further, he said the Karnataka government's efforts in the implementation of the project are not satisfactory. Even the request for appointing an efficient technical team has not been met, he said.
