Work on 10 road projects will start in Karnataka before December this year, at an estimated cost of Rs. 10,000 crore, said Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping.
He was speaking here on Tuesday at a programme to lay the foundation stone for development and upgrading of two sections of two national highways in Karnataka.
He said that he was “positive” that work on all the 10 road projects “will begin by December-end” though he had “no idea” about land acquisition for the projects.
Expressway
There are also plans of constructing a Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway, to be built of cement-concrete to reduce travel time between the two cities.
The Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway would be “like the Mumbai-Pune Expressway”, which has reduced travel time between the two cities from eight to two hours.
He also said the issue of upgrading the Mysuru-Bengaluru State Highway to a National Highway would be studied, and a “viable solution” would be found for making it a six-lane one.
Mr. Gadkari said the main problem for delay in road projects in Karnataka and in the rest of India was not because of lack of funds, but due to issues in land acquisition, railway over-bridges and environmental clearances for projects. Project work worth Rs. 3,80,000 crore is stuck because of these factors, and States should cooperate with the Centre in land acquisition and environmental clearances.
He said: “PPP model is not getting good response (because of these factors).”
Foundation stone
The Minister laid the foundation stone for the development and upgrading of the Vijayapura-Kalaburagi-Humnabad Section of NH-218 (New NH-50) to two-lane with paved shoulders from Km 195 to Km 418 under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase IV, and rehabilitation and upgrading to two-lane, and two-lane with paved shoulders from Madhugiri-Gowribidnure-Chickballapur-Chintamani-Mulbagal Section of NH-234 (new NH-69) from Km 343.800 to Km 483.151 under Phase-I of the National Highways Inter-Connectivity Improvement Projects (NHIP).
