Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will be visiting Shivamogga on February 22, Thursday, to inaugurate roads and lay foundation stones for works involving a total expense of ₹6,168.41 crores.
Shivamogga Lok Sabha member B.Y. Raghavendra, in a press conference in Shivamogga on Monday, said the programme would be held at Nehru Stadium in the city. The Union Minister would lay the foundation stones and inaugurate 18 works pertaining to a 296.92-km-long highway, spread over seven districts of the south zone. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will also attend the programme.
The works to be inaugurated include seven minor bridges on the Byndoor – Ranebennur highway built at a cost of ₹19.77 crore (NH 766), railway over bridge at Vidya Nagar in Shivamogga at a cost of ₹43.90 crore (NH 13), by-pass road bridge across Tunga River in Shivamogga built at a cost of ₹20.12 crore (NH 206) and a bridge across the Tunga River at Tirthahalli constructed by spending ₹55.62 crores (NH 169A).
Besides that, the Union Minister would lay the foundation stones for works worth over ₹2,138.30 crore in Shivamogga district. They include the construction of the road between Mavinakoppa and Adugodi in Hosanagar (NH 766C) and the construction of bridges at a cost of ₹313.56 crore; the construction of the road from Lion Safari to Anandpura (NH 206) at a cost of ₹653 crore; the construction of the two-lane road between Byndoor and Nagodi (766C) at a cost of ₹394.95 crore; the four-lane road between Nellisara and Thirthahalli (NH 169) at a cost of ₹538.71 crore; the four-lane road between Sandesh Motors and Harakere in Shivamogga (NH 169) by spending ₹39.5 crore; and the construction of railway overbridges and bypass on NH 206 at a cost of ₹198.58 crore.
Mr. Raghavendra said during the Narendra Modi-led NDA rule there had been significant progress in highway construction. Before 2014, as much as 91,287 km-long highways were built by the governments that ruled for 67 years. However, within nine years, 54,858-km-long highway had been built. “Earlier, only 12 km of road were laid in a day. Now, we are laying 37 km of road a day,” he said.