11 Flyovers, Elevated Corridors, Rohit Vemula Bill And More: Karnataka Cabinet Approves Rs 13K Crore For Bengaluru Projects

Bengaluru: In a major push to decongest Bengaluru roads, the Karnataka government has announced that it will construct 11 flyovers and elevated corridors at a cost of Rs 13,262 crore.

The state Cabinet meeting held on Thursday cleared several infrastructure and road projects spanning 75.6 km covering all five municipal corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority, to be implemented by Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited.

"These projects will be implemented by the Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited (B-SMILE)," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil told reporters after the meeting.

B-SMILE is a special purpose vehicle tasked with building mega projects in the IT city. Among these proposals, major stretches include long corridors from Ragigudda to Talaghattapura on Kanakapura Road (18.4 km) and Yeshwanthpura to K R Puram (28km). There will also be shorter flyovers and grade separators, source said.

The Cabinet also green-signalled a proposal to construct a rotary flyover at IOC Junction and a two-lane rail over bridge at Byappanahalli at a cost of Rs 436 crore.

Explaining the decision, Patil said, "The alignment prepared in 2023 for the Intermediate Ring Road has been cancelled and set aside. The 2007 alignment has been taken with minor modifications."

Further, the Cabinet approved issuing a revised notification modifying the alignment of the proposed intermediate ring road, which was scrapped by the previous BJP government.

The Cabinet also approved the Rs 85 crore biogas purification and compression system. The project seeks to utilise sludge generated from five sewage treatment plants run by BWSSB (Bengaluru Water Supply & Sewerage Board) under a public private partnership model.

Rohit Vemula Bill Gets Nod

Among the key proposals which received a nod was also the Karnataka Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill, Patil said.

The Bill, which had earlier been deferred, was cleared at the Cabinet meeting after considering inputs from various departments.

The minister said the government would share further details of the legislation separately. "It was deferred, and now we have cleared it."

The draft of the Rohith Vemula Bill, reportedly proposes compensation of up to Rs one lakh for students who face caste-based discrimination in higher education institutions, and a jail term of one year and a fine of Rs 10,000 for guilty.

Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi had written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in April last year urging the Karnataka government to enact "Rohith Vemula Act" to ensure that no one faces caste-based discrimination in the education system.

Notably, Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student, allegedly died by suicide due to caste-based discrimination in Hyderabad in 2016.