Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, who convened the meeting in which Karnataka chief secretary Sudhakar Rao participated, stressed the need to expedite power and railway projects in the State. The meeting was attended by secretaries of various ministries besides senior officials of the State.
Speaking to Deccan Herald after the meeting, Rao said amongst the projects discussed included the airport projects in four cities of Karnataka. The Cabinet Secretary directed the Civil Aviation Ministry to complete the clearance formalities to the airports of Hassan, Shimoga, Gulbarga and Bijapur before the end of this month. The final clearance will have to be given by the Union Cabinet.
Rao said the clearance from the ministry was at final stages.
On opening the Bidar airport for civilian operations, the Cabinet Secretary asked the Defence Ministry and Airports Authority of India to clear pending issues.
Railway projects
On the railway projects, the State government said some projects identified by it should be given priority in the allocation of funds in next week’s railway budget. Rao told the meeting the State government was prepared  to share the cost of such projects identified by the railway ministry.
“We want some of the projects, including the Bangalore-Mysore doubling, Shimoga-Talaguppa, Kottur-Harihar, Bidar-Gulbarga and Munirabad-Mahaboobnagar on priority,” chief secretary said.
Chandrashekar, who directed BHEL to install the machinery required expeditiously, will have one more meeting on the issue on Wednesday. The Hubli-Ankola new railway line project, to which the forest clearance is awaited, will also be taken up on Wednesday.
Sewage water treatment
The meeting also discussed the sewage water treatment project taken up by BWSSB under the NURM (National urban renewal mission) programme.
Several highway projects too came up for discussion and Union Road Transport and Highways Secretary Brahm Dutt explained the progress of these projects. The Cabinet Secretary had held first meeting to review the Karnataka projects in Bangalore on February 11.