Day after Gautam Adani meets D.K. Shivakumar, Karnataka government amends two laws to clear legal hurdles for tunnel road project

A day after Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group, which has emerged as the lowest bidder in Bengaluru’s North-South Twin Tunnel project, visited Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar at his residence, the Karnataka government passed Bills amending two laws in both Houses of the State legislature on Monday (August 24) to clear legal hurdles for the project. Three PILs in the High Court of Karnataka challenging the tunnel road project had contended that the project was in violation of these two laws. The move has drawn strong condemnation from the petitioners arguing that this amounted to “regularising violations in retrospect”. Laws amended On Monday, the legislature passed The Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which gives deemed approval for all projects initiated after the commencement of the BMLTA Act, 2022, and before the notification of the BMLTA Rules, 2026, on July 3. A batch of three PILs in the High Court had contended that as per Section 19 of the BMLTA Act, 2022, the Authority had to approve all major urban mobility projects in Bengaluru and the tunnel road project did not have this approval. Now, as per the amendment Bill, the project will be “deemed approved”. Satya Arikutharam, an independent urban mobility expert, said that the BMLTA Act, 2022, was passed in 2023, but the Authority was not constituted for years. “When citizens challenged the tunnel road project for not being approved by BMLTA, as per Section 19 of the BMLTA Act, 2022, the State government notified BMLTA Rules, 2026, on July 3, which comprised Rule 24 that gave deemed approval to projects prior to the notification of the rules. There are two PILs challenging the constitutionality of Rule 24, apart from the three PILs challenging tunnel roads. Fearing the court may strike down Rule 24, the government has now amended the Act itself to accord approval for all the unscientific car-centric projects,” he alleged. Contentions about statutory non-compliance of the tunnel road project in the 3 PILs Status now Violation of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Authority Act, 2022, as tunnel roads project was not approved by BMLTA as per Section 19 of the Act Section 19 of the Act amended for the projects taken up between 2023 when BMLTA Act came into force and BMLTA Rules, 2026 was notified, to be “deemed approved”Tunnel Road project to take up 6 acres of Lalbagh land temporarily during construction and 1 acre permanently, in violation of Section 5 of The Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Act, 1975 Section 5 of the Act amended allowing 5% of the park or garden lands to be alienated by means of sale, lease, gift, exchange, mortgage for “public purposes” No scrutiny of the project by Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC) violating Article 243ZE of the Constitution of India BMPC that was constituted in 2014 lapsed with the term of the then state government in 2018 and has never been reconstituted since thenProject neither part of the Revised Master Plan - 2015 nor planned as a part of the master plan preparation process, violating Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 Draft RMP-2031 was withdrawn by the state government over not being in sync with the Comprehensive Mobility Plan by BMRCL in 2020 and the Draft RMP-2041 is still in the works. The RMP-2015 which is in force in the city, doesn’t include the tunnel road project, nor was it planned as part of the exercise of drawing up RMP-2041. Likewise, The Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which allows alienation of 5% of parks and garden lands for public purposes, was also passed. The tunnel road project will need one acre of Lalbagh land, while six acres will be used temporarily for construction. The Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) Act, 1975, doesn’t allow this and the three PILs flagged the tunnel road as violating this law by taking over Lalbagh land. Both bills were cleared by the State Cabinet on Friday and passed in both houses of the legislature on Monday, amid protests by BJP members. During the passage of the Bill, BJP and JD(S) members raised slogans such as “carpet for Adani and biscuit for Bengaluru public”, accusing the government of moving closer to Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani in connection with the tunnel project. Petitioners condemn N.S. Mukunda, one of the petitioners in the High Court against the tunnel road project, condemned the amendments, which he described as “an attempt to make some of their grounds infructuous in retrospect”. He said this was a “deeply undemocratic move and they will fight it in the court and also petition the Governor appealing him to not give them (the amendment Bills) his assent”. “This is also a form of Akrama-Sakrama, which we have been fighting in the court as well. If the governments adopt this strategy, citizens can win no legal battle against it. This is perverse,” Mr. Mukunda said. However, the three PILs have flagged other statutory non-compliances apart from these two laws, such as no approval from Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC), and the project not being part of the Revised Master Plan - 2015. The High Court on July 16, 2026, directed that any contract for the tunnel road project will be subject to the outcome of the three PILs challenging the project. The court also said the government should inform the contractors in writing that the contract would be subject to the final outcome of the petitions. The next hearing was scheduled for August 20, but did not come up for hearing that day.