Work on 420 km of state highways to begin in June

The Rs 5,300-crore project to develop 420 km of state highways with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will start in June this year.

ADB will fund Rs 2,250 crore for developing highways in different parts of the state. The rest of the money will be raised through toll. The project will be implemented in three packages for which global competitive bidding will be called. The companies executing the project will have to complete the roads in 24 months and have to maintain them for seven years. The roads could be tolled, said sources associated with the project.

KSHIP-2: The state highway development project pertaining to Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project-2 (KSHIP-2) will be completed by 2018. Under this project, development of 1,192 km of roads has been taken up.

The cost of the project is Rs 4,522 crore of which Rs 1,575 crore is being funded by the ADB.

By October 2016, 510 km roads at an expenditure of Rs 953 crore has already been completed. Rest of the road work of 682 km is in progress and will be completed by December 2018, said sources. The projects 

• Package 1: Two-lane highway from Kollegal to Hanur (23.8 km). Two-lane highway from Chintamani to Andhra Pradesh border (39.8 km). Four-lane road from Bengaluru NICE Road to Magadi, linking National Highway-75 (50.7 km).
• Package 2: Magadi to Somwarpet in Kodagu (166 km).
• Package 3: Two-lane road from Honnali to Gadag (138.2 km).