Nitin Gadkari to conduct aerial inspection of Bengaluru-Chennai, Bengaluru-Mysore expressway projects on January 5 – The Indian Express

The Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, which is being undertaken at a cost of Rs 8,453 crore, aims to reduce the journey time between the two cities from three hours to one-and-a-half hours. However, the expressway was in news for all the wrong reasons recently after a stretch in the Ramanagara district was submerged due to incessant rainfall in August. There were also complaints of substandard work reported from certain portions of the 10-lane expressway.

Meanwhile, the Bengaluru-Chennai 10-lane expressway aims to reduce travel time from around seven hours to under three hours. The ‘new alignment’ project will connect Hoskote (in Bengaluru) to Sriperumbudur in the Kanchipuram district (40 km from Chennai).

The 262-km long Bengaluru-Chennai expressway is one of the 26 new green expressways by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2022. Built at a cost of over Rs 14,870 crore, it will pass through Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Gadkari, in his letter to Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel, announced that the Centre has taken up the four-lane works for Maranahally and Addahole (Shiradi Ghat) and bids have been invited for Rs 1,976 crore.

He also informed that the NHAI is simultaneously finalising detailed project report works for the Shiradi Ghat tunnel, which aims to decrease the logistic cost for the traffic between Mangalore and Bengaluru. The project of 23 km tunnel work will be undertaken at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore for which bids will be invited in May 2023.

Gadkari stated repair works would be carried out in the Sakaleshpura to Maranahally stretch and the bids for an amount of Rs 12.20 crore are under evaluation.