Report on Bangalore ring road project likely by January

New Delhi, Sep 6 (UNI) The feasibility study for the 250-km ring road around Bangalore city, commissioned by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is to be submitted in January next year, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways K H Muniyappa said that based on the outcome of the study, the project would be considered under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase VII.

Mr Muniyappa said the Karnataka government could also consider the feasibility of implementing the project under the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme.

In June this year, Shipping, Road Transport&Highways Minister T R Baalu had held a meeting with state Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, informing him that the consultants had already been appointed for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the ring road project.

Mr Baalu also said that after finalisation of the DPR, the project would be included in the appropriate phase of the NHDP.

Karnataka had submitted two ring road projects for approval: a 200-km intermediate ring road or a 300-km satellite towns ring road.

But the Centre is most likely to approve the intermediate ring road since it will link the National Highways criss-crossing Bangalore city.

The state government plans to complete the project in two years along with the simultaneous development of two satellite towns. In a proposal to the Centre, it has said that traffic congestion in Bangalore is largely due to long-distance lorries passing through the city on their way to other states.

If the Centre undertakes the intermediate ring road project, it will solve the problem of traffic congestion to a large extent.

In Karnataka, 670 km length of National Highways have been taken up by the NHAI for 4/6-laning under the NHDP Phase-III, in addition to the ongoing projects of NHDP Phase-I, II and III.

UNI