Abhay Patil, MLA, has appealed to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to allocate funds for the pending Ring Road project for Belagavi city.
The 69-kilometre ring road was approved under the Bharatmala-6 Project in 2017. As per the scheme, the Centre and the State have to bear the costs equally.
In a meeting with industrialists and engineers on Wednesday, Mr. Patil announced that he was hopeful of the project getting substantial funding in the State Budget likely to be presented in March.
Technical associations had requested the State government to speed up the project.
It was first envisaged and a Detailed Project Report was prepared in 2017. As many as nine realignments were studied which would connect it with the Pune- Bengaluru national highway and ease the traffic load in the city. The project has been divided into three separate packages for ease of execution.
The MLA said he had requested the CM and the Chief Secretary to include ₹190 crore as the share of the land acquisition cost. This is likely to be accepted, he said. A consent letter is being sent to NHAI from the State towards this, he said.
Once this happens, the process of land acquisition process will begin. The tenders would be opened. It could be a public-private participation model or another suitable model, he said.
“Of the 69 km, around 11 km will be on forest land. In the first phase we are targeting 58 km in the first 24 months. Efforts will be made to obtain forest approvals simultaneously. However, even if one part of the project is delayed, it would reduce the traffic in the city as the other two parts would be completed,” he said.
There are plans to widen the road to the Sambra airport and the PWD has begun the process of land acquisition. It will soon be a four-lane road, with the shoulders being expanded by 30 metres on both sides, he added.
