The Hindu : Karnataka News : Six road projects sanctioned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 28, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Six road projects sanctioned

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 27. The Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, T.R. Baalu, has announced the sanctioning of six road projects for the State.

He was speaking to presspersons here on Monday after a two-day tour and inspection of the places around Bangalore that needed connectivity with neighbouring States. The officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) accompanied him on the tour.

Mr. Baalu is visiting various States to study the impediments in implementing highway development works and find solutions. In Bangalore, he had an interaction with the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, other Ministers and the State officials on the road projects. Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Corporation, and representatives of Infosys Technologies attended the meeting. Mr. Baalu said the officials of his ministry had been given the green signal to go ahead with the works sanctioned for the State.

Prominent among the projects announced by Mr. Baalu is the 9-km elevated superstructure on National Highway no. 7 (Hosur Road) to facilitate easy movement of traffic between Bangalore and Electronics City. The project is estimated at Rs. 400 crores. A special vehicle will be introduced for the novel transport system, and the information-technology majors and others have agreed to grant 33.33 per cent of the funds. The rest would be met by the NHAI and the State Government.

Mr. Baalu said he had agreed to take up the widening of a 74-km. stretch of National Highway no. 17 to four lanes at a cost of Rs. 500 crores. The others works sanctioned were widening of the 85- km Bangalore-Kolar road (National Highway no. 4) up to Mulbagal (the 10-km Krishnarajapuram-Hoskote stretch to six lanes and the 55-km Hoskote-Mulbagal stretch to four lanes at a cost of Rs. 400 crores) and the 157-km stretch of National Highway no. 48 from Nelamangala to Hassan to four lanes at a cost of Rs. 620 crores.

Sethusamudram project

Mr. Baalu, who has already visited Assam, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, said that with regard to the Sethusamudram project in Tamil Nadu, a high-level committee comprising officials of the Centre, the Tamil Nadu Government and the Dredging Corporation of India was now looking into environmental issues. The Rs. 2,000-crore project, approved by the Planning Commission and the Union Cabinet, would again go back to the latter for discussions next week.

On the alleged slackness in the implementation of the Golden Quadrilateral project, he said the work was started without completing land acquisition, and this had become a hindrance. Cost escalation was another impediment. Investigation into the murder of Satyadev Dubey in Bihar, who had informed the Prime Minister's office about the corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project in Bihar, was going on.

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