#PragatiKaHighway: Bangalore-Mysore Economic Corridor to reduce the travel time

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After experiencing many delays due to the unprecedented, year-long Covid-19 pandemic and the following second wave of the pandemic, the ambitious 10-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru Economic Corridor is likely to be completed and dedicated to the nation by October 2022, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari reflected in his tweet.

Link: https://twitter.com/nitin_gadkari/status/1425425391364149254

Also known as Bangalore-Mysore Expressway, the economic corridor project between the two cities is being executed under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I, at a cost of Rs 8172 Cr. The expressway project is aimed to reduce the travel time between the two cities by half from the current 3 hours to only 90 minutes, said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in the tweet.

*The work on the 117kn long expressway had begun in two packages:*

– Bengaluru to Nidaghatta in Maddur: The first package, started in May 2019, runs from Bengaluru to Nidaghatta in Maddur for a 56 km long route.

– Nidaghatta to Mysore: The second package, about 61 km long, connects Nidaghatta to Mysore in December 2019.

Bhopal based Buildcon Limited was awarded the project for the construction of the corridor and has been provided with the deadline to complete the project within 30 months.

For a 117-km stretch between Panchamukhi Temple near the junction of the highway and NICE road in Bengaluru and Columbia Asia Hospital near the junction of the highway and Ring Road in Mysore, around 8,000 workers are deployed for work. The scope of the work also includes a three-lane carriageway on either side of the median, besides a two-lane service road on either side of the access-controlled main carriageway. The project also includes the construction of three elevated corridors including a 5 km section in the outskirts of Bengaluru, a 3 km section in Maddur, and the third one in Srirangapatna.

Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I

The Ministry has taken up a detailed review of the National Highways network in order to develop the road connectivity to Border areas, development of Coastal roads, improvement in the efficiency of National Corridors etc., under Bharatmala Pariyojana. The Bharatmala Pariyojana envisages development of about 26,000 km length of Economic Corridors, which along with Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and North-South and East-West (NS-EW) Corridors are expected to carry the majority of the Freight Traffic on roads. Further, about 8,000 km of Inter Corridors and about 7,500 km of Feeder Routes have been identified for improving the effectiveness of Economic Corridors.
This programme envisions the development of Ring Roads/bypasses and elevated corridors to off-load the traffic passing through cities, to further enhance logistic efficiency.