The State government now wants to convert the proposed 99-km-long elevated corridor network crisscrossing the city into tunnel roads.
This is expected to cost nearly ₹50,000 crore and the government is keen to implement this project on a public-private-partnership (PPP) mode partly funding this project in the hybrid annuity model and recover the investments made by levying a toll. If this goes through, this may be the longest network of tunnel roads in this part of the world, sources said.
A proposal to this effect was made at a review meeting by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who also holds the Bengaluru Development Department portfolio, held on Tuesday with representatives of Aecom, an international consultancy firm that has worked on multiple tunnel road projects across the world, including in Mumbai. Incidentally, the same firm had also prepared the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the elevated corridor network project in 2017. If this proposal is implemented, the government will drop the elevated corridor project, sources said.
The network has three major corridors crisscrossing the city with a North-South Corridor connecting Yelahanka with Silk Board Junction, and two East-West Corridors connecting K.R. Puram and Goraguntepalya and Varthur Kodi and Jnanabharathi, with three connecting corridors to link these longer corridors totalling to 99 km.
Both tunnel roads, along a different alignment, and elevated corridor network projects were first proposed by K.J. George when he was Bengaluru Development Minister in the earlier Congress regime. Even though both proposals have met with significant opposition from civic activists and urban mobility experts, both found a place in the Congress manifesto for 2023 Assembly polls.
Mr. Shivakumar has been championing the tunnel road project ever since he took charge as a key infrastructure boost to expand the roadway of the city to ease congestion. “The Minister thinks that apart from boosting public transport, given that the city is growing exponentially and the number of private vehicles have crossed 1 crore already, we also need to take up a mega infrastructure project to expand the roadways. Going underground will not obstruct traffic on the road either during construction or after completion like elevated corridors. They also do not lead to tree cutting. So the Minister is keen on the tunnel road network,” said a senior civic official.
The official said the technology for tunneling has improved drastically now, and tunnel roads are increasingly common across the world. Aecom, likely to be roped in to do a feasibility study and DPR for the project, has worked on Smartwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART Tunnel) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, multiple tunnel projects in Singapore and the Thane-Borivali Twin Tube Tunnel Road in Mumbai. Sources said a team of civic officials will likely tour Malaysia and Singapore to see these tunnel road projects soon.
NHAI also proposes to build a network of tunnel road
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is also working on a proposal to build a network of a 30-km-long tunnel road in the city to link the five highways in the city - Mysuru Road, Hosur Road, Tumakuru Road, Ballari Road and Old Madras Road, sources in the government said.
While these roads are presently linked by Outer Ring Road (ORR), it is also congested and the plan is to build a similar ring road connecting the five highways underground through a tunnel road. Recently, Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi submitted a proposal to build tunnel roads from Peenya to Hosur in the city and in Shiradi Ghat to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
