Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya came down heavily on Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar Monday, criticising the proposed Tunnel Road project as an unscientific and elitist initiative that sidelines the needs of the common man.
Addressing a press conference, Surya said the Congress-led state government was pushing through a vanity project that would serve only the wealthy residents of neighbourhoods like Sadashivanagar and Koramangala, instead of investing in robust public transport solutions that would benefit the majority of Bengalureans.
“When the DCM himself says even God can’t solve Bengaluru’s traffic issues, he is only exposing his own failure to govern. Bengaluru needs competent leadership, not divine intervention,” Surya remarked. “This tunnel road, planned from Hebbal to Silk Board, is a project meant for the rich, paid for by the rest of us.”
The MP raised serious concerns over the credibility of the Tunnel Road project’s feasibility study and Detailed Project Report (DPR). He claimed that the Rs 9.5 crore DPR included content allegedly copied from an earlier BMRCL DPR that cost only Rs 1.6 crore. “Shockingly, the report mentions traffic volumes in Malegaon and Nashik—cities nowhere close to Bengaluru—suggesting it was copy-pasted from a completely unrelated study,” he said.
Surya also flagged the background of the consultants involved. He pointed out that one of the firms behind the feasibility study—part of a joint venture between Lion Consultants and Altinok—has been blacklisted in Madhya Pradesh over a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project. Meanwhile, Rodic Consultants, who prepared the DPR, were reportedly linked to a Rs 500 crore scam in Jammu & Kashmir.
He further alleged that the project was moving ahead without mandatory clearance from the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), violating Section 19 of the BMLTA Act.
Calling on the state government to shelve the tunnel road proposal, Surya said public transport must be prioritised instead. “Bengaluru is the heartbeat of modern India and deserves world-class infrastructure. Before building a 100-km flyover network or an extravagant tunnel, the DCM should first complete the stalled Ejipura flyover and the Hosakerehalli Junction project,” he said.
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The Karnataka cabinet earlier in June had approved the construction of two major tunnel road corridors in Bengaluru under the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model, clearing the way for toll-based road usage. Planned under the BOOT (Build, Own , Operate and Transfer) model, the concession period has been set at 30 years, during which the selected private players will recover their investment through toll collection.
Shivakumar also stated that tender works are underway and global tenders will be issued through newspaper notification in the next two-three days.
The DPR of Bengaluru’s twin-tube tunnel road project between Hebbal and Silk Board Junction has estimated a toll of Rs 330 for a distance of 16.6 km. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 18,000 crore.
The North – South Corridor starting from Hebbal Esteem Mall junction to Silk Board KSRP Junction is going to be developed as Underground Vehicular tunnel having three intermediate locations connected via ramps for entry and exit into the Main Tunnel. This alignment will connect the Hebbal and Silk Board Junction and proposed three intermediate ramps at Mekhri circle, Racecourse and Lalbagh directly, therefore reducing travel time from about 90 minutes to 45 minute and easing congestion on the route.
