The Union government has sanctioned a Rs. 470-crore project for widening and strengthening the Hubballi-Vijayapura section of National Highway 218, Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi has said.
Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, the BJP State president said that the sanction was accorded to the project after he met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and also held subsequent meetings with the State and central government officials.
Assurance
Mr. Joshi said that Mr. Gadkari had assured to accord the sanction to road development works on two more stretches of the national highway.
Already a Detailed Project Report (DPR) had been submitted by the State officials for a Rs. 60-crore work and the Minister had assured to sanction it immediately.
Mr. Joshi said that the Centre had also permitted the construction of three more underpasses on the National Highway between Shiggaon and Hubballi and consented to bear the expense of Rs. 40 crore for the same.
He said that the underpasses would come up near Shiggaon, Kunimellihalli in Haveri district and Varur near Hubballi. The DPR was being prepared and subsequently the works would be initiated as per the procedure, he said.
Mr. Joshi said that during his meeting with the Union minister, the issue of the Hubballi-Dharwad two-lane bypass road, which had become a bottleneck, was raised and the Centre had appointed SBI Capital to prepare an estimate of the widening of the project.
He said that he was accompanied by the district-in-charge minister Dinesh Gundurao and local Congress MLAs during the visit.
They had been urged to send a proposal on the widening of the bypass, being operated on BOOT basis by Nandi Infrastructure Ltd., owned by Ashok Kheny.
To a query on the pending Hubballi-Ankola railway project, Mr. Joshi said that he had raised the issue with Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar.
They had assured to file a “positive” affidavit before the Green Bench of the Supreme Court to get clearance for the project, Mr. Joshi said.
