Peripheral Ring Road likely to be tolled
Project-affected farmers withdraw dharna; meeting promised with CM
Vehicles taking the proposed Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) may have to pay toll. As many as 10 toll booths will be set up on the 65-kilometre stretch between Tumkur Road and Hosur Road.
According to sources, the rates determined by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will serve as the base toll for the PRR.
The traffic between Tumkur Road and Hosur Road had to pass through the City and the PRR was conceived to create a bypass route. However, the project is embroiled in litigations for the past seven years. The 100-metre wide road requires around 1,988 acres of land.
In the beginning, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) planned to rope in the NHAI to build and maintain the road. The deal could not materialise and BDA had no option except to take up the project itself.
The proposed public private partnership envisages handing over the land for road construction to private companies under Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model for a minimum of 20 years. Sources said nine major infrastructure companies have qualified for bidding.
Meet on compensation
The farmers, whose lands were acquired for the project, succeeded in extracting an assurance from the BDA commissioner on convening a meeting on January 19 to sort out the compensation issue. Their lands were acquired in 2005.
Aggrieved by the delay in payment of compensation, around 300 farmers came to the BDA headquarters on Monday along, with their cattle, to stage a dharna. The protesters camped on the premises overnight.
Their grouse was that apart from the delay in payment of compensation, they had been prevented from cultivating their land for the past seven years.
They demanded a compensation of Rs five lakh from the BDA for the loss of livelihood and prevailing market rate for their land.
The dharna was withdrawn following a promise by the BDA commissioner to arrange a meeting with the chief minister.
