Bengaluru steel flyover put on hold for now, BDA tells HC

BENGALURU: In a submission that brought some cheer to the ‘Flyover Beda' movement, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) told the Karnataka High Court that it will not proceed with the steel flyover project.

The BDA's stand follows a four-week stay on the project given by the National Green Tribunal in connection with a separate petition filed by the Citizen Action Forum and former bureaucrat V Balasubramanian. The protest movement believe this could be a tactic by the government.

The BDA counsel's surprise undertaking came when the court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Namma Bengaluru Foundation. He assured the court that work will not commence on the project for the time being. The court will now examine the legal and constitutional issues pertaining to whether due process and public consultation was held by the government about the project.


“This only proves our consistent argument that BDA had never observed due diligence or due process on the ill-conceived project, but was hurrying through it even though it wasn't ready with design and feasibility studies. Even the detailed project report was made available only last month after the citizens' movement gathered momentum,“ the Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), which is spearheading the #SteelFlyoverBeda campaign, said.

The coalition plans to have a day-long satyagraha at Freedom Park on Sunday to demand cancellation of the tender, which was awarded to the an L&T-Navayuga joint venture. The Rs 1,791 crore project aims to improve airport connectivity through a steel flyover from Basaveshwara Circle to Hebbal junction.

Theatreperson Prakash Belawadi, one of the prominent campaigners against the project, said there was no celebration yet. “This a game BDA is playing. With this, they just bought time to get the NGT stay vacated. And it also shows that the BDA is truly scared of our movement; they knew we would have appealed any order favouring the flyover,“ he said.

Architect Naresh V Narasimhan agreed. “This is a deliberate self-goal by the BDA and a clever move. They are trying to keep the matter in the High Court and not let it escalate to the Supreme Court.“