Two long-pending road projects will get a boost with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to give a green signal for the works when he visits the city on Monday.
Officials said the work on the six-laning of the National Highway between Nelamangala and Tumkur (NH 4), which has been pending for over a year, will begin within the next five months. "The project has been delayed due to the pandemic as the concessionaire period was extended by the courts in view of the losses suffered by the company. The PM's green signal will help begin the work on the related projects like the Tumkur bypass which is being taken up in the first phase," a senior National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) official said.
The work will be taken up at the cost of Rs 844 crore. It seeks to remove the bottlenecks between Nelamangala and Tumakuru, especially at Dabaspet and Kyatsandra toll plazas. The widening of the road will also provide better connectivity to villages and towns along the way, particularly Dabaspet where many industries have come up over the last five years.
STRR work to begin
NHAI officials said the work on two packages of Satellite Township Ring Road (STRR) will also begin in the next few days, in a win-win situation for Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu. "Work on the 20-km stretch of the proposed STRR from Hoskote to Tamil Nadu/Karnataka border and the 35-km stretch between Belagondanapalli in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka/Tamil Nadu border will be inaugurated on Monday," an official said.
The full-fledged STRR is envisaged to decongest Bengaluru by diverting all the inter-state traffic from northern parts of the state and the country. At the same time, the road will boost the industries in Bengaluru, Hosur and Chennai. "Vehicles can take the STRR from Dabaspet to avoid the traffic snarls in the city. This will reduce the time required to reach Hosur and Chennai," the official added.