Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson M. Lakshmana on Friday asked the BJP government to permit free movement of vehicles on the Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway, which is nearing completion.
Addressing a press conference here, he referred to Mysuru MP Pratap Simha’s statements on the expressway and wondered how the BJP government can claim credit for building the expressway when they were planning to force the travellers to cough up a huge sum of money in the form of toll.
“Are you giving the road to the people to use free of cost?”, he sought to know referring to Mr. Simha’s claims that the expressway had been brought to them by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The motorists, who will use the expressway, will be “burning their pockets” by coughing up a huge sum of money in the form of toll, he said.
He said the Congress government had already built a four-lane highway between Mysuru and Bengaluru, which was widened into a six-lane expressway during the tenure of the BJP government.
The credit for the expressway should actually go to the Congress leaders viz former Minister for Public Works H.D. Mahadevappa, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Union Minister for Surface Transport Oscar Fernandes, he said.
While Mr. Mahadevappa had attended 63 meetings of the Union Surface Transport Ministry on expansion of the expressway, Mr. Siddaramaiah had attended 12 meetings. “I have the records to prove it”, he said.
