Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has instructed officials to identify locations in Bengaluru to build double-decker flyovers on which both metro rail and vehicular traffic can move, which he believes is a potent plan to unshackle the gridlocked city.
By peppering the city with double-decker flyovers, Shivakumar said he is willing to go slow on his tunnel plans.
“I have made a decision...wherever metro rail connectivity is coming up and work hasn’t started, we will have a flyover-cum-metro line. It will be like what we are doing as a pilot project at the Silk Board Junction,” Shivakumar, the Bengaluru City Development minister, said.
Shivakumar was referring to the road-cum-metro flyover coming up between Ragigudda and Central Silk Board. “I have given directions that in the entire city there should be one flyover (for vehicles) and a metro line. Pillars will be fattened for this,” he said. “With this, we can go slow on the tunnel project,” he added.
According to Shivakumar, the BBMP and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd will share the cost of these double-decker flyovers. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to acquire land,” he said.
In another decision, Shivakumar said the government will build roads in buffer zones of stormwater drains.
“We will build roads on which two-wheelers, four-wheelers and schoolchildren can traverse,” Shivakumar said, adding that this will be possible along buffer zones of stormwater drains in peripheral areas of the city.
“The city has a stormwater drain network of about 800 km. Even if we find 100-150 km where there is space, we will make new roads. This will prevent flooding,” Shivakumar said.
In lieu of roads, Shivakumar said transferable development rights (TDR) will be given. “Wherever people have constructed buildings in the buffer zone, they can’t do much anyway. We will give them TDRs. We can start from Mahadevapura,” he said.