Cabinet OKs 155-km roads around city at Rs 2,095 cr

The state Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for the development of 155 km of roads in and around Bengaluru to ease traffic congestion.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said the roads will be developed by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd KRDCL) at an estimated cost of Rs 2,095 crore.

The stretches of roads that will be developed are: Hoskote-Budigere-Mylenahalli-Devanahalli (Kempegowda International Airport) (22 km, at a cost of Rs 420 crore), Nelamangala-Madhure-Byatha Road (stretch of 43.5 km at a cost of Rs 505 crore, Anekal-Attibele-Sarjapur-Varthur-Whitefield-Hoskote Road (47.5 km at a cost of Rs 625 crore), Harohalli-Uruganadoddi-KIADB Industrial Area-Jigani-Anekal Road (42 km at a cost of Rs 545 crore).

All ULBs under one act

Jayachandra said the Cabinet has decided to entrust the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) the with task of coming out with recommendations for having a common legislation to govern all urban local bodies to streamline administration.

At present, 11 corporations are governed by the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976. Less populated urban pockets, including city municipal councils (CMCs), town municipal councils (TMCs) and town panchayats (TPs) come under the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964.

Planning, development of layouts and sanction of building plans come under the jurisdiction of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961, and Karnataka Urban Authorities Act, 1961. “The proposal is to bring all urban local bodies under one enactment,” Jayachandra said.

Urban experts have pointed out that the multiplicity of legislation sometimes results in overlap of procedures, delays in plan sanctions, and many of the clauses in the existing enactments are redundant and need to be structured.

The Cabinet also approved constituting committees for monitoring implementation of Smart City projects.
Jayachandra said the Cabinet accorded administrative approval for construction of vented barrage across Gangavali river to supply water to Karwar-Ankola towns, project Sea Bird and village along the way at a cost of Rs 158.62 crore.

In another decision, the Cabinet gave its approval for recruitment of meritorious sports persons as deputy range forest officers and forest watchers.

Rs 275 cr just to get data

Consider this: Rs 275 crore for data collection and to come out with detailed project reports for development of ring roads in 25 district headquarters.

In a decision that it bound to raise eyebrows, the state Cabinet gave its approval to an official committee to spend this whopping sum for bringing out reports on the feasibility of developing ring roads. There is more. The committee, headed by the additional chief secretary of the urban development department, has been given a time frame of five years to come out with the report.

When reporters sought to know why the government was spending a huge amount for collating data that is already available with district administration, Law Minister T B Jayachandra tried to find an answer in the Cabinet note. But there was none.