Bids for 65-km peripheral ring road in a month: HD Kumaraswamy

The state government will invite bids for its ambitious peripheral ring road (PRR) project in Bengaluru in about a month, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said here on Tuesday.

In his last stint as chief minister, he had worked on the PRR proposal and issued preliminary notification for land acquisition. It is sad that the project remains at the discussion stage even after 12 years and during this period the project cost has shot up five times, Kumaraswamy said at a meet-the-press programme at the Press Club here.

The 65-km project will connect Tumakuru Road with Hosur Road through Ballari Road and Old Madras Road. It will also be linked to the NICE expressway.


The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) will be implementing the project. The government has planned to build it on a hybrid annuity model. The project would require about 1,810 acres of land and the entire project, including the land cost, is estimated to cost about Rs 14,000 crore.

The chief minister said the project would be cleared in the next cabinet meeting (scheduled for October 25), paving way for the tender process. BDA officials are hopeful of being able to invite the bids in 4-6 weeks.

The government, the CM said, would provide budgetary support for the project. The construction cost will be about Rs 6,500 crore.

The roads will be built over the next three years and will be 60-metre wide, Kumaraswamy said. The government, the CM said, has planned a combination of projects such as PRR, elevated roads and metro to decongest Bengaluru.

ELEVATED ROADS
The government, the CM added, is working on six elevated corridors in five phases with a combined length of 102 km for Bengaluru but will decide on the project after consulting technical experts, prominent citizens and media personalities. Users will receive benefits of about Rs 9,000 crore a year from the elevated corridor by way of savings in fuel costs, energy and time and from reduced pollution. There was no shortage of funds for these projects, the CM said.

The elevated corridors will cost about Rs 1,454 crore and the government intends to plan the project in such a way that there would be minimal displacements. “I have asked officials to plan it in a way that people are not inconvenienced,” he said.

LED LIGHTS IN CITY
The BBMP will soon switch to LED lights as the civic body is currently paying an electricity bill of ?100 crore a year. By moving to LED lights, the civic body will pay only about Rs 15 crore.

The BBMP is working on tenders as the project will be implemented by private investors, the CM said.