Smooth sailing on elevated tollway

Smooth sailing on elevated tollway
Bangalore, Jan 22, DHNS:

The 9.98-km long elevated tollway on Hosur road was thrown open for public on Friday.

Inaugurating the road infrastructure, Union Minister for Surface Transport Kamal Nath hoped that the project will help the City and also the country in moving forward. “If the nation has to grow, infrastructure deficit has to be bridged,” he said.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said that the elevated tollway built by the Bangalore Elevated Tollway Limited (BETL) will go a long way in easing the traffic along NH-7 that runs ahead of Electronic City. “The long-standing demand of the IT/BT sector is being fulfiled with the opening of this express highway,” he said.

The CM appealed to the Centre for assistance to repair the roads in the flood-ravaged districts of North Karnataka. He said that the government needs Rs 1,000 crore to repair and maintain the badly damaged roads and requested the Union Minister to sanction Rs 500 crore under special grant for restoration of the roads.

National Highway-48 connecting Bangalore with coastal Karnataka needs to be upgraded into a four-land road. Similarly, the Shiradi Ghat road should also be repaired. An estimate in this behalf has already been sent to the Surface Transport Department and the National Highway Authority of India, he revealed.

Bangalore (South) MP, Ananth Kumar asked Kamal Nath to approve 15 underpasses below the elevated flyover, while the Union Minister of State for Railways, K Muniyappa appealed to his Cabinet colleague to provide an elevated highway along NH-4 too.

Union Minister for Law and Justice, Veerappa Moily praised the efforts of the UPA regime and directed a comment towards the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa stating: “I would say that you are the luckiest Chief Minister when we are at the Centre.” In response, Yeddyurappa said that the co-operation provided by the Centre towards the State’s endeavours in the development of Bangalore and Karnataka was indeed noteworthy.

The Chief Minister invited Kamal Nath for discussion over the needs of the State in infrastructure development. The idea mooted by Ananth Kumar was immediately latched upon by the CM who invited Nath to Vidhana Soudha to discuss the issue. Kamal Nath accepted the invitation.