Bengaluru-Chennai work to be flagged off by PM

Expressway will reduce travel time between two cities

December 06, 2020 10:08 pm | Updated 10:08 pm IST - MYSURU

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to flag off work on the much-awaited 263-km-long Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway, a greenfield project that seeks to reduce travel time between two major south Indian cities.

Though the date for launch of the work has not yet been finalised, Mysuru MP Pratap Simha told The Hindu that senior officials from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had already visited Bengaluru for an inspection of the project.

He said the works on the key road infrastructure project could be flagged off before the elections are held to the Assembly in Tamil Nadu, whose term is scheduled to end in May 2021.

Mr. Modi had similarly launched the work on widening the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway in February 2018 ahead of the May 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials said bids had been invited for one package of the expressway project that passes through three States – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. While 72 km of the expressway will fall in Karnataka, about 85 km will be in Andhra Pradesh and 106 km in Tamil Nadu.

The expressway project starts from Hoskote and passes through Malur and Bangarpet in Kolar district before entering Andhra Pradesh and eventually reaching Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

Though initially it was conceived as an eight-lane expressway, the width of the road was reduced to six-lane and eventually four-lane due to budgetary constraints. However, officials said the land acquisition process for the project has been completed.

The estimated cost of the expressway project is around ₹17,000 crore and is scheduled for completion in about two-and-a-half years.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.