2.3.18

Bengaluru-Mysuru E-way Project

The National Highways Authority of India has awarded the six-laning of the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway project to Dilip Buildcon, a Bhopal-based construction firm. The public-private partnership project is estimated to cost about ₹7,000 crore. The firm has won both the packages the NHAI had proposed in a tender that saw good participation by developers: the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta section and the Nidaghatta-Mysuru section of National Highway-275. The firm will be implementing the project on hybrid annuity mode. The construction firm quoted 10% lower than NHAI’s estimates for the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta section and 17% lower for the Nidagatta-Mysuru section. The 61-km Nidaghatta-Mysuru section proposal was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the PM on February 20 as the construction cost was estimated at ₹2,920 crore.

The 56-km Bengaluru-Nidaghatta section was cleared by road transport minister Nitin Gadkari as the project cost was below ₹2,000 crore and hence did not need Cabinet approval.

The NHAI divided the project into two packages to speed up road construction. The contractor is expected to start work in about six months and would require about 30 months from the start date for completion, NHAI officials said.

The project road, which forms a section of NH 275, connects the IT capital with Karnataka’s cultural capital of Mysuru. The proposed expressway would also connect Bengaluru with places like Mangaluru, Kodagu, parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Chief minister Siddaramaiah and public works minister HC Mahadevappa hail from Mysuru.

The existing four-lane road has already crossed its capacity, resulting in traffic jams and accidents. The road is passing through congested and thickly populated towns and settlements like Maddur, Mandya and Srirangapatna, NHAI officials said.

The new expressway, when operational, is expected to cut the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru to 90 minutes and that would cheer the IT industry, among others. Mysuru has not been able to attract investments in the IT sector in spite of Infosys landing there a decade ago. The expressway, when commissioned, will have 10-lanes including two-lane service roads on either side and three-lane main carriageway in each direction.

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