BENGALURU: Encouraged by the backing it has received from Union Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari , the state government plans to start work on six-laning of the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway NH 275 ) in May this year."Mr Gadkari is supporting this project and wants us to start the work as early as April. But we want to start at least by May," Public Works Minister Dr HC Mahadevappa told ET.The highway, according to the minister, is an important road connecting two major cities and very congested. "It witnesses a traffic of about one lakh cars on weekends. A journey that should take two hours takes about four hours now," the minister said.The proposed freeway will run for a length of 117 km between NICE entrance in Bengaluru and the ring road junction (near the Columbia Asia hospital) in Mysuru. The proposed road is expected to bring down the travel time to 90 minutes."We will complete the detailed project report in about 10 days and submit to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. The ministry will take a call on how to go ahead with the project," Public Works Department Principal Secretary MR Kamble said. "It is most likely to be on build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis," he added. The department hopes to complete acquisition of 1,230 acre of land by April. "We are not facing any resistance for land acquisition. Instead, people are willing to part with their land as we are paying them four times the market rate as compensation," he said.The construction will cost Rs 3,500 crore and land acquisition will cost another Rs 2,400 crore. The ministry is expected to spare Karnataka of any financial burden on the project.The six-lane expressway will be access-controlled with fence on either side and users will pay a toll. The project also includes building two-lane service roads on either side of the expressway.The Public Works Department, which is going to implement the project, will build bypasses at Bidadi , Ramanagar-Channapatna, Mandya and Srirang apatna. However, at Maddur town, the expressway will be taken through an elevated corridor. "There will be frequent underpasses to facilitate movement of local traffic from one side of the service road to the other," Kamble said."We should be able to complete the project in 24 months from the zero date as we will use modern construction machinery to build the expressway," Kamble added.According to KV Rajendra Hegde, President & CEO at Bidadi Industries Association, the proposed bypass at Bidadi will greatly benefit the 30,000 employees of the Bidadi industrial area who use Mysuru Road everyday."The bypass will cut their travel time by 30 minutes one way and help in increased efficiency and productivity and result in far better worklife balance," he added.