Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw welcomes decision to Bengaluru scrap steel flyover project

Biocon Chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw welcomed the Karnataka government's decision to scrap the proposed steel flyover project in the city on Thursday.

Shaw is also the member of Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group, a vision group formed by the state government to find solutions to resolve city's infrastructure and civic bottlenecks. "If the decision is to drop it, I must commend the government. I think they have taken a good decision; they have been sensitive to citizen's concern. I think main concern was about the alignment of the bridge," Shaw said.

She said "I think if they (government) want to think about alternative, they should actually now consult with citizens groups that would basically then get into infrastructure development that is in line with what the city needs in terms of its environmentally, eco-friendly kind of alignment."

The state government today decided to scrap the controversial Bengaluru steel flyover project that was aimed at decongesting the road that connects the city with its international airport and surrounding areas.

The Rs 1,800-crore project has been facing stiff opposition from citizens' group over environmental concerns and doubts over its sustainability model.

Questions were also raised regarding escalation in its cost.

Recent allegation of crores of rupees received as kick back in connection with the project as allegedly mentioned in the diary entries of Congress MLC Govindaraju had also marred the project.

Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar described the scrapping of the project as "victory" for the people of Bengaluru.

"The news of the Government of Karnataka's climb down on Bengaluru's dubious Steel Flyover project is very welcome. This project was characterised by unseeming hurry, no public consultation, no environment impact assessment, inflated costs and finally an alleged diary with kickback entries," he said in a statement.

"The demand for investigation into the alleged diary remains and must be followed through," he said.