Friday, January 22, 2010

Kamal Nath inaugurates Ten-Laned Mixed Corridor to Electronic City, Bangalore
  
The Ten Laned Mixed Corridor to Electronic City, Bangalore on NH7 was inaugurated by Shri Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Transport and Highways in Bangalore today. Inaugurating the 9.985 km elevated highway, the longest elevated national highway in the country, Shri Nath said the highway will set the benchmark and standard for such projects in future for the country. Terming this as first step towards solving the infrastructure crisis of Bangalore, he said “which city can be more deserving than Bangalore for such a project as the “intellectual city” has brought India on the IT map of the world.” He announced that the State would get Rs.18000 crores of road project in the next four years which will help in reducing the infrastructure deficit in the State. Addressing the media persons later on the sidelines of the event the Minister announced that the Government of India will be signing an MoU with the Government of Malaysia in February this year for greater cooperation in the road sector.

Also present on the occasion were Shri B S Yeddyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Dr Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Law & Justice and Shri K H Muniyappa, Union Minister of State for Railways.

The project would benefit lakhs of daily commuters and would save more than one hour of travelling time for commuters travelling from Silk Board Junction to Electronic city. With a traffic of about 1.5 lakh PCUs (Passenger Car Units), this elevated highway will be the second busiest toll road in the country and the third busiest in the world. It will not only benefit the urban population living in Bangalore but will also shorten the travel time for those travelling between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The project is a part of the North-South Corridor connecting Srinagar to Kanyakumari.

Commissioned in 2006, the total cost of the project is Rs.450 crore. With a negative grant of Rs.16 crore, the project has been completed by Bangalore Elevated Toll Way Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle initiated by a consortium of three construction companies on BOT (Toll) basis. The concession period is 20 years.

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