Prime Minister launches ten-lane expressway and Metro in Bangalore

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched two major infrastructure projects in Bangalore aimed at decongesting the traffic-choked roads of the City.

After laying the foundation stone for a ten-lane 9.89 kilometre-long elevated expressway between Bangalore and the Electronic City on its outskirts, which is expected to facilitate faster road travel for software engineers heading to their workplace, the Prime Minister also launched the Bangalore Metro project aimed at reducing the traffic snarls on the roads in the City.

The Rs 4.5 billion expressway project, touted as the first of its kind in the country, will have a four-lane elevated highway in addition to a six-lane road on the ground, linking Bangalore with Electronic City, which houses hundreds of software firms.

The existing four-lane highway is currently overburdened with an estimated 100,000 vehicles driving in and out of Bangalore towards Electronics City and onwards to Hosur and Chennai in neighbouring Tamil Nadu every day. The mixed corridor is designed to take a load of upto 125,000 vehicles without causing traffic snarls.

The elevated expressway, which is expected to ferry software engineers faster to their workplace or home, is scheduled to be completed in 24 months time.

Flagging off the project, Manmohan Singh announced the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government’s decision to enlarge the funding to the National Highway project to a whopping Rs 2,220 billion.

The UPA Government has “speeded up” the construction and development of national highways. The National Highway Development Project costing Rs 2,220 billion will be implemented in the next 7 to 8 years.

He said the Federal Government will be six-laning the entire Golden Quadrilateral project connecting the four metros in the country. “I look forward to the day when the face of this nation will be changed by a dense network of world class highways, reaching out to the farthest corners of the country”, Manmohan Singh said.

Later in the day, the Prime Minister launched the Bangalore Metro project, which is expected to ease traffic congestion on the City’s thoroughfares that are chock-a-block with more than 2.5 million vehicles.

The Rs 63 billion Bangalore Metro envisages laying a 36-km-long rail network through the choked roads of Bangalore. The two-corridor Metrol rail project is scheduled for completion in 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister emphasized the need for inclusive growth process to build a prosperous, equitable and humane nation. “We want both our urban areas and rural areas to develop. We want to build an India in which scientists and engineers, farmers and workers, artists and entrepreneurs can all find the space to express their creativity and enterprise.”, Singh said.