BENGALURU
Karnataka anti-development party means BJP, said Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
He was responding to media queries at Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday. On whether the process of submitting tender applications for the tunnel road has reached its final stage, he retorted, “We will know in a couple of days how many contractors have submitted applications for the tender. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune have expressed great happiness about the nature and size of our tunnel road. 50% of the section will be in Bengaluru. Keeping all this in mind, we have planned the metro and 50% of the metro route is in the form of a tunnel. No one spoke then. We will do our duty. I will not comment on other matters. This is not a project being done for me. This is for the future of the next generation, for Bengaluru.”
When asked if this was your dream project, he said this is more of a youth’s dream than mine. “Gadkari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have advised me. Modi showed them the double-decker project. They have built tunnel roads in Pune and Bombay. Everything is fine there. Whatever you do in Karnataka, they oppose it.”
“When I called the MLAs from Bengaluru in a room next to the Vidhan Soudha and told them what I was trying to do about the tunnel road, everyone agreed. Some are opposing it, but I don’t care. As long as there is opposition, we have to be very careful. Our officials are working vigilantly. The media has done some studies and written reports. If there are good points in their report, we will accept it. If there are mistakes, we are ready to correct them. The BJP is criticizing and giving them more publicity, and I congratulate them,” he said.
On objections raised by the Central Environment Department to the Sharavati Project, The DyCM said, “We are going to release a book called Water Footprint on November 14. It is Nehru’s birthday. On that day, I will release the book and will talk about the state’s irrigation projects including Mahadayi, Sharavati and Mekedatu.”