50,000 km national highways to be upgraded into 4, 6-lanes

Mysore, Mar 16 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways K H Muniyappa today said the Centre has decided to upgrade 50,000 km of national highways into four-lanes and six-lanes in the next four years.

Talking to newspersons here, he said almost 95 per cent of the work on golden quadrangle project was completed.

He said the upgradation works would be carried out with private participation under Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

On national highways in Karnataka, Mr Muniyappa said of the 3,975 km of national highways, 700 km would be taken up for upgradation at a cost of Rs 750 crore.

The alignment for a new bridge across Kabini river at Narasipur had been approved and an estimate was being prepared for its construction.

He said a survey would be carried out for an express highway between Bangalore and Chennai and the state government was expected to submit a detailed report to the Centre for approval.

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