Bengaluru is famous for its chronic traffic congestion and the chaos it entails. The authorities have been trying to devise ways to ease the traffic here. The proposed tunnel road project connecting Hebbal to Silk Board is one such move. This long-pending, Rs17,800-crore underground tunnel project has now landed Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) DK Shivakumar in a ‘bizarre’ controversy. He recently met Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya to discuss the alternatives to ease Bengaluru’s traffic. In the conversation that followed, Shivakumar made a controversial remark: ‘People don't marry daughters to men who don't own cars’.
BJP MP Tejasvini Surya, in fact, pitched for scrapping the tunnel road project, as it would strictly be a car-only roadway, intended to facilitate high-speed personal mobility. Surya suggested shifting the focus to improving public transport and shared mobility within the city. He claimed that strengthening public transport would eventually discourage people from using their own private vehicles, easing traffic.
Reacting to these, Shivakumar told the media "Can I stop you from bringing your vehicle? It's a matter of social responsibility. People prefer to travel in their own vehicles with their families. Can we prevent them from using their cars? If needed, MPs can appeal to their constituents to leave their cars at home and use public transport. Let us see how many actually follow that. Today, people even hesitate to marry a boy who doesn't own a car."
What the minister said in his statement is indeed a social reality. Owning a car isn’t just about ensuring convenient personal mobility anymore. It has larger social implications as well. While it may not be strong enough to be decisive in finalising a marriage, it does have its role in shaping life and relations here.
Talking to the media later, Surya took a swipe, saying, "For all these days, I was under the wrong impression that the tunnel project was aimed at solving the Bengaluru traffic problem. Now, DCM has clarified that it is intended to solve a social problem - of people not wanting to marry a man without a car. How stupid I was!" The DCM’s remarks have sparked discussions both online and offline.
Tejasvi Surya presented a vision of mobility that was entirely different from the one that the deputy CM had in mind. Public transport took the centre stage here. It pitched for an aggressive expansion of the metro line.
According to it, the metro needs to be expanded to 300 km, and the frequency should be brought to 3 minutes. A 314km suburban rail system, modern tram services, strengthening BMTC services, and rolling out small private feeder buses connecting inner neighbourhoods and narrow roads were also part of the proposal. High-frequency (one every 5-10 minutes) shuttle services need to be introduced along the Outer Ring Road (ORR), linking KR Pura (Purple Line) and Silk Board (Yellow Line) to ensure smooth last-mile mobility.
The logic here was that the car-only tunnel road can only move 1800 cars per hour (roughly 7200 people, considering a car carries four), while the metro line would move 69,000 passengers in the same time, and for the same cost. Talking about his vision, Surya said “We should focus on moving more people, not more cars," The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA), he said, needs to be formed soon.
According to reports, just the metro expansion has managed to interest the DCM, subject to conditions. Talking to the media, Shivakumar said “Surya has made some suggestions. He said the tunnel road is mainly for cars and wants the Metro network to be expanded. We have no objection to that, But I told him to get more funds from the central govt for the Metro. Right now, we receive only 10-12% of the total project cost. I urge all Bengaluru MPs to meet the PM- I'll join them too."
Bengaluru is a fast-growing city. It is, in fact, India’s IT hub. Ensuring smooth and fast mobility is critical in a city that aspires to be the Silicon valley of a developing country. A well-built public transport system can contribute a lot to this. The BJP MP’s proposal falters when it advises public transport over private mobility! World-class cities (which is what Bangalore aspires to become) need multiple transportation models.
From well-built public transport systems to infrastructure favouring easy, safe, and convenient use of personal mobility solutions (cars, vans, bikes, scooters, cycles, and more!), it should accommodate everything. Citizens should have the freedom to choose their respective ways of commute. One shouldn’t impose any of these models on them as possible replacements of other(s). These should all stand non-exclusive.
In the ideal case, authorities should improve public transport and last mile connectivities, and let citizens decide if they should drive or take a bus to work, on any given day. In other words, the tunnel road and metro expansion, should both be done!