Bengaluru: After facing several hurdles, the link road to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) is set to be thrown open to the public by March.
A senior officer from the Public Works Department (PWD) said that two roads, one from Hennur Main Road and the other from Thanisandra Main Road, converge at Bagalur, from where a link road is being developed to connect the southeast side of the airport. “The work was delayed for a year because of problems over acquiring land from farmers to shift the power line which is running under the path of the link road. They were not allowing us to carry out the work as they were not being compensated. But now, the compensation has been granted and work will pick up pace,” he said.
Another officer from PWD said that there is a lot of pending work on the link road and March has been set as the deadline. “The major pending work is shifting of the 120 kv power line which supplies power to the airport. But the land owners, from whom the land is acquired next to the link road to lay the power line should be compensated. We heard that the process of acquiring land from farmers has been completed and once the compensation is distributed to the farmers, the work to shift the line will begin,” he said.
A discussion was held with KPTCL officials, who assured PWD officials that the line shifting work will begin soon after the authorities complete the formalities of compensating the farmers. Once the line shifting work is completed, the road-laying work can be finished within two to three weeks, they said.
A senior traffic police officer said, “The link road will help ease traffic at the Hebbal junction as people coming from East division of the city and Whitefield and surrounding areas can reach the airport faster with the travel time reduced. There won't be congestion near the Hebbal junction, which is the current primary route.”
