If everything had gone as planned, the government would have been signing an agreement with German Public Sector bank KfW on Tuesday to fund the Rs. 1,000 crore Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on Outer Ring Road (ORR).
However, the indecisiveness of the government — the BRTS is caught in inter-departmental wrangling — has left the project in limbo.
The proposed BRTS between Hebbal and Silk Board Junction (30 km) was envisaged to provide two dedicated bus lanes on the busy ORR that has emerged as a high-traffic corridor flanked by major tech firms on either side.
The differencesThe top bureaucracy of the State is divided along BRTS and Metro camps, with chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee on the side of the latter.
Namma Metro wants to build a rail line along the road in Phase III of the project. Bureaucrats say having both — BRTS and Metro line — is not feasible.
However, at a recent meeting of CEOs of tech firms on ORR, there was a demand to implement BRTS to improve the commute on the corridor.
S. Saravanan, senior vice-president of EMC Corporation, told The Hindu that while companies preferred a Namma Metro network in the long run, BRTS is needed to improve the commute on the ORR in the short-term.
Pawan Mulukutla, a transport expert from Embarq, said that it was wrong to see Namma Metro and BRTS as competitors on the tech corridor. The two will supplement each other, he said.
