Sunday, Jan 09, 2005
Sunday, Jan 09, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Karnataka
By Our Staff Reporter
The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, greeting the Union Minister for Rural Development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, at the inauguration of 65th annual session of the Indian Roads Congress in Bangalore on Saturday, as (from left) the Union Minister of State for Shipping and Road Transport, K.H. Muniyappa, the Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, T.R. Baalu, and the Public Works Minister, H.D. Revanna, look on. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
BANGALORE, JAN. 8. The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, has urged the Union Government to reclassify the Bangalore-Mysore-Madikeri-Mangalore roads and the Raichur-Bachi road as national highways. Mr. Singh was delivering his presidential speech at the inaugural session of the 65th annual session of the Indian Roads Congress here today. The two districts, Raichur and Kodagu, in the State had been deprived of National Highway status and connectivity. The State Government had already improved the Bangalore-Mysore-Mangalore road. The road has connected the coffee growing Kodagu and the port city of Mangalore. The development work on Raichur-Bachi road is in progress. With the completion of work, the road will connect North Karnataka with the North-South Corridor near Raichur city, he said. The State had developed all its major roads on a par with the national highway standards. According national highway status to them would help the Union Government in expanding and reinforcing its network without additional financial burden, Mr. Singh said.
Improving roads
The Minister for Public Works and Energy, H.D. Revanna, said that the Government has taken many projects for improving and developing roads under the aegis of the Karnataka Road Development Corporation (KRDC) and the Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (KSHIP). The KRDC has taken up reconstruction and widening of Bilikere-Belur road (119 km), Jewargi-Bijpur (120 km), Raichur-Wadi road (88 km), Andhra Pradesh Border-Medak (120 km) and Mysore-Bantwal (220 km) at an estimated cost of Rs. 645 crores. The KSHIP has undertaken upgradation and maintenance of 2,400 km of the State Highways at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,020 crores, he added.
Upgrading highways
The Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, T.R. Baalu, has said that the ongoing works on upgrading and widening the 14,000 km network of national highways under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) at an estimated cost of Rs. 64,000 crores is likely to be completed in 2007. Mr. Baalu said that in the first phase, the project covered roads laid under the Golden Quadrilateral Project and in the second those built and developed under the North-South and East-West Corridor project. He was speaking after inaugurating the 65th annual session of the Indian Roads Congress here today.
Private partnership
The Minister noted that with the objective of encouraging private partnership in the road sector, a proposal for converting 10,000 km of national highway into four lanes and maintaining them under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis had been made. That would be taken as phase III of the NHDP project. The new four lane roads would connect all the State capitals covered under phase I and phase II. A proposal to establish an Accelerated North-East Road Development (ANERD) had also been made. The ANRED envisaged the development of 64,00 km of roads of various categories, including national highways and district roads, in the north-east.
Resources
Explaining the need to augment resources for maintaining and developing roads across the country, Mr. Baalu said that "rehabilitation and maintenance of highways has assumed urgency in the interests of the over all economy." In the wake of lack of funds for maintenance there was a need to explore an economically viable maintenance strategy, he felt. The Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, K. H. Muniyappa, the Union Minister for Rural Development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, and the Minister for Public Works and Energy, H.D. Revanna, spoke. The Union Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajashekharan, and Ministers, including the Minister for Rural Development and Panchyat Raj, H.C. Mahadevappa, were present.
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