A decision to hand over the project for implementation to the NHAI was taken during a meeting of the State's Executive Committee, headed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur, on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mr S Krishna Kumar, advisor to the Governor, said the Bangalore Development Authority, which has planned and prepared a detailed project report for the PRR would complete the land acquisition process and pay compensation for the acquired land. The NHAI would reimburse all costs, including that of land acquisition to the BDA later, he added.

Construction of PRR will be taken up in two phases, and the NHAI will first take up the northern sector connecting Tumkur Road till Old Madras Road.

Similarly, in case of building an expressway to the new international airport, the NHAI would reimburse of the cost of land acquisition to the State government and the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
Handing over of the two mega projects to the NHAI would be an advantage for the State as the former has taken up many national highway projects in and around Bangalore.

Mr Krishna Kumar also said that the NHAI has agreed to building connecting roads to the PRR from the existing Outer Ring Road, at various points in future. Both projects would be taken up under the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer scheme.

Project approved
The State Executive Committee on Tuesday approved the improvement of state highways under the second phase of Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project (KSHIP) aided by the World Bank.

Mr S Krishna Kumar said though a total 3,400 km of State Highway (SH) would be covered under the second phase of KSHIP, initially 585 km of SH would be taken up as the world bank, at present, has sanctioned a loan of about Rs 1,000 crore. Two stretches of SH spread over eight to 10 district will initially be covered.

MSP for copra
The Committee also decided to purchase copra by paying minimum support price (MSP) in the event of market price falling below the MSP. Mr P P Prabhu, another advisor to Governor, said copra would be purchased based on the MSP fixed by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.

The MSP for ball copra has been fixed at Rs 3,870 per quintal and for milling copra it is Rs 3,620.