Bengaluru: “Shout at me if I’m doing wrong,” Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar declared at a business summit here Wednesday, placing women entrepreneurs front and centre of urban traffic and civic infrastructure projects and urging them to become partners in Karnataka’s growth story.Asking them to publicly support his government’s controversial tunnel-road project from Hebbal to Silk Board, the CM said some leaders were opposing it for political reasons. He maintained that the tunnel would pass beneath Lalbagh without damaging its green asset, a contrasting stand 24 hours after agreeing to revisit a now-passed bill to set aside 5% of park land for infrastructure projects.Addressing the fifth edition of ‘Together We Grow’, organised by Ubuntu Consortium at FKCCI, Shivakumar said Bengaluru’s mobility problems were impacting business and workers in terms of time and money. He asked the gathering to speak up on the issue and hold political leaders accountable.In a strong defence of tunnel projects, Shivakumar explained the rationale behind such proposals: Widening existing roads is difficult because much of Bengaluru has not been planned for its present scale. Travelling from Mysuru to Bengaluru takes 90 minutes, but entering the city and reaching the final destination could take longer, he said.He said the government was investing more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore in Bengaluru’s development and mobility infrastructure. The city’s rapid growth and rising number of vehicles had made travel increasingly difficult, he admitted.The remarks come amid opposition to the proposed north-south tunnel corridor project, which is facing criticism from BJP, civic groups and urban-mobility experts. Critics have questioned its cost and argued that car-focused infrastructure could undermine Bengaluru’s public-transport goals.At the event, the chief minister also assured women entrepreneurs of all govt support. “You are not employees, you are employers,” he said, praising them for creating jobs and assuming a wider responsibility towards society.Shivakumar pointed to the state’s subsidised financing facility under which eligible women entrepreneurs can access Karnataka State Financial Corporation loans at an effective interest rate of 4%. He called for more educated women to enter politics and assume leadership roles from gram panchayats to Parliament.
