Tunnel Roads: Move with Caution

The Deputy Chief Minister Mr. D. K. Shivakumar, who also holds the portfolio of Bengaluru Development, has mooted construction of tunnel roads underneath the important traffic arteries to ease the traffic congestion on the surface roads.

He informed the media on Thursday that the state government would be inviting the tenders in 45 days. Accelerated urbanization process is unarguably making the movement on overground roads stressful.

Land is under intense pressure due to increased demand for residential and service areas. Transferring various uses underground, especially transport infrastructure, is receiving active consideration around the globe.

In fact, cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Haifa in Israel have already successfully experimented with subterranean roads. Bengaluru was ranked as the most congested city in 2022 on Traffic Index released by Dutch company specializing in location technology TomTom.

It was pointed out that it took a car borne traveller 29 minutes and 10 second to cover a distance of 10 km during day hours in the Central Business District of the city.

Tunnel roads are stated to be advantageous for reducing noise pollution as well as for being weather proof as they mitigate rigours of driving during harsh summer, snow or windy conditions.

Yet the idea of tunneling under a heavily populated city which has already witnessed considerable excavation for laying down of tunnels for Metro train network in recent years must receive due consideration.

Building roads underground is not what it takes to build them on surface. Traditionally, boring tunnels underground have been prohibitively expensive, costing as much as $ one billion per mile.

Moreover, safety aspects, especially in a city where heavy downpour has led to deluge in gated communities, will call for exercising extreme caution.

And of course, questions are bound to be asked if such infrastructure projects are mooted prior to general elections as politicians have often been accused of promoting such projects for personal pelf rather than popular benefit.