‘Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway to be built,’says Gadkari

An expressway will be built connecting Bengaluru to Chennai, said Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, and Shipping.

He was speaking here on Tuesday at a programme for laying the foundation stone for development and upgradation of two sections of two national highways in Karnataka.

He said the road would be built of cement-concrete and would be “like the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which had reduced travel time from eight to two hours”.

While saying that the issue of upgrading the Mysuru-Bengaluru State highway to a national highway would be considered, he said, “We will look for a viable solution”.

Mr. Gadkari said that 10 road projects would be started in Karnataka before December this year at a total cost of Rs. 10,000 crores. The roads are: Hospet-Chitradurga, Hospet-Ballari, Hassan-BC Road, Shivamogga-Mangaluru, Ankola-Hubbali, Hubbali-Hospet, Vijayapura-Kalaburagi-Humnabad, Nelamangala-Tumakuru, Chitradurga-Haveri and Bengaluru-Dindigul (Tamil Nadu).

The Minister laid the foundation stone for the development and upgradation of the Vijayapura-Kalaburagi-Humnabad Section of NH-218 (New NH-50) to two-lane with paved shoulders from Km 195 to Km 418 under NHDP Phase IV and rehabilitation and upgradation to two-lane and two-lane with paved shoulders from Madhugiri-Gowribidnure-Chikkaballapura-Chintamani-Mulbagal Section of NH-234 (new NH-69) from Km 343.800 to Km 483.151 under Phase-I of NHIP.