Bengaluru, DHNS Union Minister for Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the work on six laning the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway will begin by December 2016.

Under the Rs 8,000-crore project, two service lanes on both sides of the highway would be provided for the use of local people. The decision to commence work in December was taken at a review meeting held on Wednesday headed by Gadkari, who announced this at a meeting of officials and civic bodies held here later in the evening.

Other decisions that were taken at the review meeting, Gadkari said, was widening of the NH-207 and of NH-4 from Nelamangala to Tumakuru. A fund of Rs 2,000 crore has been sanctioned for the work. But on the whole, infrastructure works amounting to Rs 10,000 crore has been sanctioned at the review meeting, Gadkari said.

Bengaluru City Development Minister K J George, who also spoke on the occasion, said that the suburban rail system would be developed so as to be connected to metro rail. He said the first phase of the suburban rail system would link Tumakuru with Yeshwantpur, Whitefield to Baiyappanahalli and Mandya to Kengeri.

“Originally, the cost of establishing the suburban rail was around Rs 9,000 crore, while this system of connecting suburban rail with Metro rail would cost only Rs 1,000 crore. The Union railways has committed itself to do the work. We would be pitching in 50 per cent of the Rs 1,000 crore that the new system costs,” George said.

George remarked that Bengaluru this time had unmotorable roads to a larger extent because of the severe rain the City experienced.

“We will now take up the work to refurbish the roads in Bengaluru. Work will begin on February 25.

“We are spending around Rs 1,500 crore for the development of the roads in the City,” George said.

New metro route

The minister also said he would propose two new metro lines to the BMRCL. One would be a line from Dairy Circle to Nagawara and the other from Silk Board to KR Puram.

On the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR), George said the project would work out to Rs 11,000 crore of which land acquisition alone would cost Rs 8,000 crore.

Centre to invest Rs 1-L cr in K’taka

Union Minister for Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari announced that the Centre has drawn up a plan to invest Rs one lakh crore for the development of national highways and ports in the two years in Karnataka. Of this, Rs 60,000 crore will be spent by the end of this year, including Rs 10,000 crore on a tunnel road at Shiradi Ghat and upgrading 4,000 km of highways.

The Centre has decided to increase the length of national highways from 96,000 km to 1.5 lakh km in the next two years in the country, he added.

The Mangalore port will be expanded at the cost of Rs 10,000 crore and about Rs 2,500 crore will be invested in the development of four lighthouses in the State.

“Infrastructure development is the key for development. Without good infrastructure, investments are unlikely to come,” the Union Minister stated.

“I suggest that the development of the PRR be taken over by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as the PRR comes very close to the highway. Let the road be tolled by the NHAI. This is a proposal, let us see how things develop,” he added.

Photo credit: DHNS