JOIN USUnion Minister for Road Transport and Highways Oscar Fernandes on Tuesday asked the State government to speed up the work on preparing the feasibility report on the ambitious Shiradi Ghat tunnel to enable the Centre to finance the project.
Speaking to mediapersons here after laying foundation for the new national highway-150 connecting the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (Gulbarga-Krishna), Fernandes said the tunneling of the Shiradi Ghat road would be a technological milestone and will be taken up with Japanese technical expertise. It is expected to cost Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 4000 crore.
“If the State could expedite the preliminary work and send the proposal to the Centre, we will certainly consider it for funding,’’ he said.
Fernandes observed there should not be any difficulty in the project getting environment clearance as no disturbance will be caused to the flora and fauna, and also no land would be acquired for the project. If the technological breakthrough was achieved, the project could be taken up. Once the tunneling is done, the distance of the Shiradi Ghat stretch would come down from 47.8 km to about 20 km.
Further, as it will be made a four-lane road, accidents could be reduced substantially, he added.
The minister said that if the Shiradi Ghat road tunnel turns out to be successful, similar experiments could be carried out in the two Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
On the state government’s request to the Centre to upgrade 27 state highways into national highways, Fernandes said that since the 11th Plan was over, the best possible would be done utilising the available finances.
Minister for Railways Mallikarjuna Kharge urged Fernandes to take up the work on Solapur-Gulbarga national highway and, Bidar MP N Dharam Singh urged him to take up Zaheerabad-Bidar-Nanded national highway work at the earliest as assured by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.