Surya slams Bengaluru civic body for 'inefficiency'

Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya on Saturday criticised the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), saying the slow pace of construction of the Ejipura flyover in the Karnataka capital reflects the inefficiency of the civic body.

Surya, who represents Bengaluru South constituency, inspected the work underway on the 2.5 km Ejipura Flyover project, along with MLC-elect Gopinath Reddy, and pulled up officials over the progress of the work.

"This reflects the BBMP's apathy to the citizens and its inefficiency to complete such small projects. Across the country, be it Kashi, Nagpur, Delhi, Hyderabad or Chennai -- we have seen bigger corridors, flyovers and highways constructed in just a couple of years. But the BBMP has been unable to complete a simple 2.5 km flyover even after 3 years, and it is not even certain if it would be even complete by January 2023. I have spoken to BBMP Commissioner Gaurav Gupta to look into this and change the contractor if needed," he said.

The Ejipura Flyover project, connecting a 2.5 km stretch from Kendriya Sadan to Ejipura through the Sony World signal, was floated in 2018 with a target date of 30 months to completion at a cost of Rs 203 crore.

"This is simply unacceptable. If it has taken over 3 years to complete just 45 per cent, how will the remaining 55 per cent be finished in just over 13 months? The contractor is taking the citizens for a ride," he said.

The MP will again review the progress of the work within 2 weeks along with BBMP Commissioner Gaurav Gupta.