Elevated expressway work on Hosur Road from April 2

Bangalore-Hosur six-lane road by April 2007

The Hindu

BANGALORE, NOV. 30. Making the Bangalore-Hosur stretch of the national highway a six-lane road and the construction of an elevated road between the Central Silk Board intersection on Hosur Road and Electronics City will commence in April and the work will be completed in two years.

Review meeting

This was stated here today by the Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, K.H. Muniyappa. The Minister participated in a review meeting with senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the State Government and representatives of the Electronics City Association.

Apart from discussing the commencement of work on the Bangalore-Hosur stretch, the meeting also discussed making some sections of the national highways in the State four-lane roads. The NHAI has planned to make nearly 360 km of national highways in the State into four-lane roads.

Cost sharing

Mr. Muniyappa and the member, Finance and Administration, NHAI, L.K. Joshi, later told presspersons that the Karnataka Government and the Electronics City Association had agreed to participate in the construction of the 9-km elevated road from Central Silk Board to Electronics City. They would contribute Rs. 100 crores each for the Rs. 450-crore project. A Special Purpose Vehicle would be constituted to implement the project.

Along with this, work on making the Bangalore-Hosur stretch a six-lane road would also commence. There was adequate land on either side of the existing road and so there was no need for land acquisition, except for some small pockets. The service road on either side of the existing road was not continuous. The new service road would be continuous till Hosur. Further, several underpasses for pedestrians and vehicles would be constructed to ensure smooth flow of traffic on the highway.

Diversion

Mr. Muniyappa said that during the construction work on the national highway leading to Hosur, heavy vehicles would be diverted along adjoining peripheral roads, mainly the Hosur-Sarjapur road. The State Government had been asked to strengthen these roads to carry heavy vehicles. Light vehicles, including cars and two-wheelers would be permitted to use the existing road between Bangalore and Hosur while work on widening the road was on.

Toll to be collected

The NHAI, which has decided to collect a toll from inter-State vehicles using the six-lane highway and the elevated road, had not finalised the toll for different categories of vehicles. It would be finalised in consultation with the State Government and the Electronics City Association.

Mr. Muniyappa said there would also be a 4-km elevated road on the Nelamangala stretch of the national highway from the outskirts of Bangalore. The grade-level road would also be widened to a six-lane highway. The estimated cost of the project was Rs. 400 crores, including Rs. 200 crores for the elevated road.

Depending on the participation by the Peenya Industries Association, the Jindal group and the Himalaya Drug Company, which had evinced interest in the project, a special purpose vehicle would be constituted. Otherwise, the work would be undertaken on a build, operate, transfer basis.

Four-lane roads

He said work on widening to four lanes the Nelamangala-Hassan stretch of National Highway 48 at a cost of Rs. 620 crores, the 157-km Belgaum-Panaji highway at a cost of Rs. 400 crores and the 74-km stretch of National Highway 17 between Suratkal and Kundapur at a cost of Rs. 500 crores would also begin soon.

Golden Quadrilateral

On the Golden Quadrilateral project linking New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, the Minister said work was in progress on 2,662 km of the 5,846 km in all.

Already 3,184 km had been made four-lane roads. In the project linking the north-south and the east-west corridors (total length 7,274 km), 653 km had been made four-lane and work was in progress on 410 km. The works were scheduled to be completed by 2007.

The Chief Secretaries of the States in which the works were in progress had been directed by the Union Government to hold monthly review meetings and monitor the progress, he added.