'BMIC will be Bangalore's undoing'

'BMIC will be Bangalore's undoing'
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Even as the dust kicked up over the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure project has settled, and the State government is going ahead with it, a professor of civil engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has termed the project 'Bangalore's undoing'.

As stated by K S Jagadish, the BMIC project, which is aimed at decongesting Bangalore, will do the exact opposite when completed. He feels that the project will actually lead to overcrowding in Bangalore due to an influx of people from other cities and towns and not the other way round. “This will exert more pressure on the city's crumbling infrastructure on daily basis,” he added.

“Once the project is complete, people in small towns along the highway like Ramanagaram, Channapatna, Maddur, Mandya and even Mysore will seek jobs here owing to the convenience in travel. This will lead to massive overcrowding in Bangalore. Many will even migrate to the city and go away from it as envisaged. IT majors setting up facilities in Mysore will remain a distinct possibility.

“The project concept is flawed and will be the city's undoing,” Jagadish said, adding that BMIC was “no more than a front for a land-grabbing scheme.”

Jagadish also questions the technical basis for the project. “Who needs a expressway to Mysore? It is tourist city and not an industrial or commercial hub. One cannot take the expressway beyond Mysore. It is naturally land-locked city - a dead end. One hits Western Ghats immediately after the city and the topography is unsuitable for further highway construction,” he added.

Jagadish feels that investing in Davangere as an alternative urban centre would have been a better idea. “Davangere is a commercial and industrial hub with a good water source. There is much business traffic between the city and Bangalore. An expressway to Davangere can be continued all the way to Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and finally towards Mumbai.

“If Davangere develops in 15 years (and it has the potential), People from neighbouring cities like Shimoga will go there for business and not come and congest Bangalore,” he added.