Hebbal Tunnel Road Gets Conditional Nod for 3.3 Acres Near Hebbal Lake

The Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) has granted conditional approval to the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) to use 3.3 acres of land near Hebbal Lake for the proposed Hebbal Tunnel Road project. The decision comes alongside a disclosure in Parliament by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh that the Centre has not yet received any proposal seeking environmental clearance for the broader Bengaluru tunnel road initiative.

The planned 2.2-kilometre tunnel in Hebbal is designed to run between Hebbal Junction and Mehkri Circle. According to project plans, the underground road will pass beneath the railway line and Outer Ring Road while cutting through the campuses of the University of Agricultural Sciences and the Veterinary College.

The conditional approval from the lake authority was granted despite opposition from environmentalists, who raised concerns about the tunnel's close proximity to Hebbal Lake and its potential ecological impact. Officials cautioned that construction could obstruct natural water channels and affect nearly 50 trees located around the lake, with an estimated 600 trees impacted across the entire tunnel project route.

In its approval conditions, the authority instructed the BDA to ensure that the physical structure, biodiversity, water inflow and outflow, and public and wildlife access to Hebbal Lake remain entirely unaffected. The BDA was also directed to comply strictly with National Green Tribunal norms and was barred from dumping construction debris in or around the lake area.

BDA officials stated that they plan to transplant all affected trees along the project alignment. BDA representatives added that preliminary tunnelling work has already commenced within the Veterinary University campus and claimed that no trees have been damaged so far during construction.

The regulatory status of the overall project was clarified in Parliament following a question submitted by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya. Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh explained that standalone tunnel projects do not automatically require prior Environmental Clearance (EC) under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, as tunnels are not listed in its Schedule.

However, Singh noted that if a tunnel forms an integral component of a larger highway project covered by the EIA notification, the entire project must undergo an environmental appraisal. He detailed that the EIA process examines groundwater, hydrology, drainage, tree cover, biodiversity, air quality, geology, disaster risks, and climate resilience to formulate safeguards before issuing any clearance.