Private party pitches in for 4-lane corridor

Private party pitches in for 4-lane corridor

A 5-km elevated express corridor from Bangalore City to Nelamangala Road is expected to reduce traffic congestion at the outskirts of the city.
Deccan Herald

The Electronic City Companies’ Association has come forward to contribute Rs 100 crore for the construction of a 9-km four-lane elevated express corridor proposed to be built from Madivala Circle in Bangalore City to Electronic City.

Disclosing this to reporters in Bangalore on Friday, Union Minister of State for Surface Transport K H Muniyappa expressed happiness over the private companies coming in a big way to sponsor infrastructure programmes.

He said the entire project would cost around Rs 400 crore. While the government would provide another Rs 100 crore, the Centre would provide the remaining Rs 200 crore for the project. It would cost about Rs 40 crore for the construction of a km of elevated corridor as world class technology would be used for construction, he said.

Express corridor
He also announced that another elevated express corridor would be constructed for a stretch of five km from Bangalore City till Nelamangala Road. The traffic congestion at the outskirts of Bangalore would be reduced to a great extent after the completion of these two corridors, he observed.

Listing various road development works taken up in the State, Mr Muniyappa said 360 km of national highways in Karnataka had been taken up for upgradation at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. These roads would be converted into four-lane highways at a rate of Rs four crore per km, he explained. An advisory committee, comprising senior officials of the National Highway Authority of India, had been formed to look into this work.

The lane conversion work would be reviewed in Bangalore on November 30. Union Minister for Surface Transport T R Balu and Chief Minister N Dharam Singh would participate in the review meeting, he said.

He said a committee headed by the Chief Secretary had been formed to review the progress of all the highway works in the State. The committee would meet once a month. The four-laning work was in progress in a phased manner on 41,000 km of national highways, of the total stretch of 65,000 km in the country. Besides, about 10,000 km of roads to connect ports were also being constructed.
He said it had been decided to construct service roads for the highways being built under the golden quadrilateral project.

Mr Muniyappa said the next year’s conference of the Indian Road Congress would be held in Bangalore. The conference, in which 2,500 engineers are expected to participate, will have a detailed discussion on issues related to national highways, he said.