Overview

• BJP MP Tejasvi Surya publicly invited Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on July 17 to an open discussion to probe the merits and flaws of the Hebbal–Silk Board tunnel road plan.
• The Karnataka cabinet approved the 18 km underground corridor under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer model and floated global tenders on July 14 for two 8.7 km twin tubes.
• Surya and other critics say the project’s ₹18,500 crore price tag serves only a car-owning elite, excludes buses and autos and proposes a prohibitive ₹660 one-way toll.
• Opponents have threatened legal challenges and pointed to the tunnel’s limited throughput of 600–1,600 people per hour compared with a metro’s capacity of 25,000.
• Karnataka Congress has defended the venture as essential to Bengaluru’s multimodal mobility strategy and has welcomed independent audits, technical reviews and public debate.