Bangalore-Mysore Toll Road
India’s technology capital Bangalore is to get an $87m toll motorway
to help battle the city’s growing congestion problems. The first stretch of the
road was opened to public in mid-2006 and other stretches are being opened in a
phased manner. About 33% of the cost will be paid for by the business tenants.
The project forms part of the larger 111km,
four-lane Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor project (BMICP), a
realisation of more than a decade’s planning to solve the growing congestion
problems of India’s technology capital.
The proposal is to build a four-lane elevated concrete toll expressway
(expandable to six at a later date) to link Bangalore with a key job-spinning
suburb to tackle traffic problems stemming from high levels of growth.
In this respect, India is following the example of other countries such as
France, which have long used toll roads to smooth traffic flows and reduce
congestion.
The four-lane, 111km concrete expressway that will connect Bangalore, the state
capital, with Mysore, the state’s cultural capital, is expected to cut driving
time between the two cities from the present four hours to 90 minutes.
At the Bangalore end, a 41km peripheral road connects the expressway to NH 4
(Bangalore-Pune) and NH 7 (Bangalore-Hosur). A 9.1km link road connects Bangalore
city centre to the expressway. A limited-access expressway, it will have a
continuous barrier on either side. The development of five self-sustainable
townships has also been planned as other components of the BMICP.
Components of the four-lane expressways consist of the following:
·
Southern section of
the outer peripheral road: 41km, connecting NH 7 and NH 4
·
Bangalore-Mysore
expressway: 111km connecting, Mysore and Bangalore
·
Link road: nine
kilometers, connecting the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway to SH 17
·
Elevated link road:
Three kilometers of elevated expressway, connecting the link road to downtown
Bangalore
Some 20,193 acres of identified land in
Bangalore, Mandya and Mysore is being acquired for the company by the Karnataka
Industrial Areas Development Board. Of this, 4,000 acres are for the
expressway.