BELAGAVI/HUBBALLI: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has suggested Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to work on a project to develop smart villages’ alongside the new stretches of National Highways coming up between Chennai and Bengaluru. According to Gadkari, it is possible to overcome the rising congestion in Bengaluru City by developing smart villages close to the greenfield highways which are due to come up between Bengaluru Rural and Kolar.
Laying the foundation for five highway projects in Belagavi, at a cost of Rs 3,972 crore, on Monday, Gadkari said wherever new highways get built, industrialists usually buy lands nearby at lower prices. “I suggest CM Bommai to work on a project to acquire such lands and develop smart villages on the lines of smart cities being developed across the country. The Union Government will provide all the required support to the State to make this project possible,’’ he added.
Under the greenfield highway corridor project, Gadkari said his department was laying roads across 9,000 km linking several states, including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, spending an estimated Rs 3 lakh crore. The industrial sector in Bengaluru would get a huge boost with the development of this project, he added.
Gadkari said that under the proposed Bharat Mala-II highway project, it has been planned to reduce the distance between Pune and Bengaluru by 100 km. The same Pune-Bengaluru highway would connect to Bengaluru-Chennai national highway, he added.
Gadkari further added that the five highways to which he laid the foundation on Monday, would help boost business activities around the border areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra.State inks pact with Centre to develop roads in NK Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday informed that the State Government is signing an MoU with the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for developing roads bypassing major towns and cities of North Karnataka, such as Kalaburagi, Belagavi, and Vijayapura.
Speaking at a function here on Monday to lay the foundation for widening of the Hubballi-Dharwad bypass and dedicating other completed work to the nation, Bommai said that under the agreement, the Centre would pay 25 per cent of land acquisition cost. But the State should part with the GST collected on purchase of steel, cement, and other material, and give up royalty collected on the sale of sand and stone jellies.