Bengaluru: With a National Highway expected to come up between Bengaluru and Mysore by 2017, the state government has come up with an ambitious plan to create satellite towns alongside it to decongest the two cities. While PWD minister, Dr C Mahadevappa announced on Monday that the Centre had cleared National Highway -275 and work on the Rs 3000 crore six-lane road project would begin in early 2015, housing minister, M H Ambarish said his department would build a series of satellite townships between Bengaluru and Mysore.
“The idea is to basically decongest the two cities. The travel time between them will be two hours,” he said, revealing the department had already identified Toobinakere near Mysore for one such township. “We plan to develop satellite towns on dry land and avoid irrigated areas. Instead of acquiring the land, the government will involve landowners on a 60:40 basis to develop it. This will help farmers earn revenue and contain migration of those who give up their land,” he explained.
Asked about the fate of NICE and its plans for a Bengaluru-Mysore corridor, Dr Mahadevappa said “it was NICE,” but not every project could be taken seriously. “The government will support projects as long as they are legal,” he declared. According to the minister, the survey for the proposed National Highway will begin in a week. While around Rs 1100 crore has been earmarked for acquisition of 550 acres of land, Rs 1600 crore will go into road construction. The utility shifting charges are expected to touch Rs 300 crore, taking the project cost to Rs 3000 crore.
The project will see construction of flyovers in Bidadi and Srirangapattana , bypasses at Ramanagar, Chennapattana , Mandya and from Srirangapattana to Ilavala. At Maddur, cattle and local vehicle under-passes will be constructed every 500 meters. The project will be built on a Design, Build, Operate, Finance, and Transfer basis, with the construction company expected to maintain the road for 18 years before handing it over to the NHAI.
