The much-awaited Peripheral Ring Road project connecting Tumakuru in Karnataka and Hosur in Tamil Nadu through Bengaluru is finally gaining traction. The project was announced by former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna in the early 2000s, with the goal of limiting the entry of heavy vehicles. On Tuesday, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said that the government will call for tenders for the project within a month after the project had been put on the back burner by successive governments. In fact, Rs 5,800 crore was set aside for the project in September 2013 by the then-Siddaramaiah government, however, nothing moved on the ground.
“We are trying to figure out how to bring in the entire project under the ambit of the budget. So far, Rs 2,000 crore has been set aside for the first phase of the project. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 6,500 crore. Over the next three years, the government will fund the whole project in phases,” CM Kumaraswamy said on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister said that in the budgetary allocation during the next fiscal, the government would set aside Rs 4,500 crore for the project. The peripheral ring road is slated to be 60 m wide running up to 65.35 km. The CM has set three-year deadline for the completion of the project. Kumaraswamy also said that a provision for a metro line in the median has been made.
“Notification for land acquisition was made when I was the Chief Minister in 2006. Now the estimated cost of the project has gone up by more than four times,” he added.
Over the years, the project has been pending as the Bengaluru Development Authority and the National Highways Authority of India have been passing the buck to each other regarding land acquisition.
The project has also undergone various changes since its original plan, where several farmers were to lose their lands. Currently, the government is planning to make it an elevated highway. The flyover will be tolled, while the road below would be a toll-free road.