The contentious virtual conference for Benaglureans to comment and suggest changes to the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) Project will go on as planned. The project is facing stiff opposition from the public as it is going to uproot 33,800 trees and affect multiple water bodies. The PRR project involves laying 65.5 kilometres of an eight-lane road network between Tumakuru Road on the west and Hosur Road on the east via Ballari Road and Old Madras Road.
It may be recalled that a physical meeting on August 18 for the same purpose saw very few people attend due to major confusion. While Forest Minister Anand Singh had asked the meeting to be cancelled the previous evening, the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner and officials of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) went ahead with the meeting. A section of activists had demanded that the public consultation process be postponed given the sharp increase of daily COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru.
BDA Chairman Mahadev R on Friday told TNM that residents can join the meeting on Zoom on September 3 (Meeting ID: 850 1729 9310, Passcode-bpe2020).
He said the meeting will be held at 12 pm and those who cannot attend the meeting can send their comments in writing to: eeddaprr@gmail.co before September 15.
The Chairman’s statement comes on the day many residents under the aegis of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) wrote to him to release the detailed project report (DPR).
Tara Krishnaswamy, co-founder of CfB asked, “We find it irreconcilable that a public consultation can be scheduled without the public availability of the DPR! How are the public expected to feed back when no plan has been shared?”
She added, “Given the largeness of the project, cost and huge ecological impact, at least two weeks’ time must be provided to examine the DPR prior to public consultation.”
When TNM asked Mahadev when the DPR will be made public, he said they are yet to finalise and cannot give a date at this moment. He said, “We are yet to finalise how to integrate PRR with NICE Road and other close by road networks, then only we can publish the DPR.”
Vijay Nishanth, Bengaluru-based conservationist and a member of Biodiversity Management Committee of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) questioned the intention of the government agencies.
“This truly shows how they do not care about the public opinion. Who will take responsibility for all the confusion that was created for the August 18 meet? Also, what is the hurry of going ahead with the project during the pandemic when it is delayed for so long already. How can only 150 people decide in a virtual meeting what’s good for the city?” he told TNM.