Bangalore: The country will have an additional 50,000 km of roads by 2012 at a cost of over Rs. 2 lakh crore, Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways has said.

The state-of-the-art roads will have six lanes.

The Minister was speaking at the release of a Kannada version of select speeches of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also inaugurated an exhibition of photographs ranging from the freedom struggle to the latest developments in the country.

Mr. Muniyappa said only five per cent of work remained on the Golden Quadrilateral project and it would be complete by 2008-09.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, MP, asked Mr. Muniyappa to connect Bidar and Ooty, via Gulbarga and Raichur, by means of a national highway.

Later, speaking to presspersons, Mr. Kumar criticised the Centre for not laying down fair guidelines for releasing assistance to States from the Calamity Relief Fund. "The Centre had formed a Group of Ministers (to formulate calamity relief guidelines. But there has been one disaster after another. Has the GoM ever met," he asked.

Mr. Kumar said that the Centre was discriminating against the State in disbursing flood relief. "They have announced Rs. 400 crore for Maharashtra and Rs. 200 crore for Andhra Pradesh. But Karnataka has received no flood relief," he said.

Criticised

Criticising Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil for making out a case for Maharashtra on the Belgaum dispute, Mr. Kumar said the Home Minister should be unbiased and should not favour any State. The Centre should file a clear reply in the Supreme Court stating that Belgaum belonged to Karnataka and that the Mahajan Commission report would be implemented in full.

Terming Maharashtra's petition in the Supreme Court a move aimed at gaining political mileage, Mr. Kumar said that under the Limitation Act, 1963, Maharashtra had only three years to appeal against the report. But more than 30 years had passed since the Mahajan Commission report was filed, he said.

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