Centre ready to help solve City traffic woes

The Centre on Wednesday offered a helping hand to the State government to solve the vexed traffic problem in Bengaluru.

Speaking at the Invest Karnataka meet which began here on Wednesday, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said the Centre was ready to take up long-pending infrastructure projects, such as peripheral ring roads if the State government provides land.

“Industry leaders such as Azim Premji and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw recently urged me to do something to solve the traffic problem in Bengaluru. If the Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) and the Public Works Minister (Mahadevappa) are ready to give land, we (Centre) are ready to give funds for infrastructure development,” he added.

Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre would work with the State to implement the proposed sub-urban rail system.

Naidu also assured cooperation on elevated roads projects within the City and expansion of Metro network.

Besides, six cities and 27 small towns of the State have been selected under the Smart Cities and Amrut Cities projects, he added.

At a separate interaction programme in Bengaluru, Gadkari requested Town Planning and City Development K J George to submit a report and the profile of the kind of elevated roads that Bengaluru required.

Congestion
He said congestion and road density were a problem even for other metros and therefore his ministry had taken responsibility to address transport problems within metros.

He promised that his ministry would help to the extent it could, as strictly speaking, roads within cities did not come within the purview of the ministry.