Bengaluru, (DHNS): Work on the long-pending widening of the Bengaluru-Mysuru national highway will start in September and the project will be completed in two years, Public Works Minister H D Revanna said Monday. The six-laning of the highway, which is expected to cut travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes, will cost Rs 5,019.62 crore. “The original deadline for the completion of the work was three years, but the contractor who has been awarded the project is supposed to be one of India’s best.

So, I have asked for the work to be completed in two years,” Revanna told reporters. Bhopal-headquartered Dilip Buildcon will execute the project. According to the plan, the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway development work includes construction of a main carriageway of six lanes, which will be tolled, and a service road with two lanes on either side of the highway that will not be tolled. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has divided the work into two packages — Bengaluru-Nidaghatta (56.2 km) and Nidaghatta-Mysuru (61.1 km).

“We have acquired 63% of the land required for the project out of the total requirement of 80% for the work to start. In 10 days, the rest of the land will be acquired,” Revanna said. Highway projects worth Rs 37,000 crore are under way in the state. Of this, NHAI is taking up projects costing Rs 27,000 crore and the state government worth Rs 10,000 crore, the minister said. “The chief secretary will review the progress every month,” he said. The Public Works department has released Rs 25,000 per km to repair roads that have been damaged due to heavy rainfall of late, he said. Revanna declined to comment on promotions and demotions effected in his department even as the Supreme Court was hearing a case related to reservations in promotions. The minister refuted reports that he had taken up renovation of his official bungalow in Kumara Park West even as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, his younger brother, has ordered cuts in “unnecessary” expenditure. “All that I’m doing is getting the house painted,” Revanna said.