After putting it on the backburner for over a decade, the state government has finally given wing to its ambitious peripheral ring road (PRR) project.
Unlike the initial plan of building an eight-lane road, the BDA has chosen to build an elevated road with dedicated space for the Namma Metro lane in between. With the formal approval from the finance department for the new plan coming last week, the project will soon be placed before the Cabinet for final approval.
Though the idea of having an elevated corridor in Bengaluru has met with stiff opposition, the BDA has defended the project citing spiralling land acquisition costs and maintained that by opting for the elevated structure, the cost of the project would come down by 40%. According to B S Shivakumar, engineer member, BDA, the authority has already floated tenders for technical advice and once the agency is finalised, the project will be placed before the Cabinet. DH has accessed the sketches of the proposed elevated PRR with facilities for various utilities.
“The major hindrance to the project was the land acquisition cost and hence it was decided to make it elevated. With the elevated road, not only do we save on the land costs but also the project gains momentum,” he said.
“BDA initially needed about Rs 8,000 crore for acquiring land to lay a 100-metre wide road. But now, with the latest plan, the cost has reduced by 40%. We have also reduced the width of the road to 60 metres. The government has given it the green signal with a rider that it needs to be completed soon,” he explained.
The decision to reduce the width of the road has also resulted in dropping of the earlier idea of commercialising space around the PRR. However, contrary to BDA’s claim that elevated corridor would bring down the cost, the cost of the PRR has escalated from the earlier Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 18,000 and finally to Rs 20,000 crore. “The escalation of cost may not be a problem as the finance department has assured funds for the project. Besides, the authority is also banking on funds from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),” revealed yet another BDA official.
BDA engineers said the PRR would provide for increasing passenger car per unit and Metro expansion.
“Initially, in 2004-05 when the PRR was conceived, BDA had estimated that the PCU would be 40,000. But this has increased to 90,749 in 2014 when the detailed project report (DPR) was prepared. Currently, according to calculations by independent agencies, the PCU has increased to 1,14,000 which is likely to increase by another 4% in the next couple of years. To meet the traffic surge, Metro work is also being included in the PRR,” the official clarified.
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