Centre to Spend Rs 688 Cr to Make Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway Safe for Motorists | Exclusive

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posted on 8 months ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Till last July, the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway saw 121 deaths and 400 accidents, making the Centre order a safety audit

In a major move, the Centre has decided to spend Rs 688 crore on road safety measures on the six-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway which was opened last year before the Karnataka polls. The Centre has invited bids for the same on Saturday after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recently completed a survey of the expressway following a spate of road accidents on the new highway.

The dangerous spots found during the survey, including issues of gradient, will be rectified with corrective road safety measures during the exercise. More lighting, foot overbridges, warning signs, headlight reflectors, road markings, guard rails and crash barriers could come up on the highway.

The NHAI had last year constituted a committee of road safety experts to carry out the safety inspection of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also earlier met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Delhi over this issue.

Inaugurated in March 2023, the 118-km-long Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway has cut travel time between the two cities in Karnataka by almost half to just 75 minutes. However, it also caused a number of road accidents. AI-based speed detectors were installed a few months later to penalize motorists driving above the speed of 100 km/hour, which brought down the number of accidents. Siddaramaiah had alleged that the project was opened in haste before the elections by the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state, and adequate road safety measures had not been implemented.

Replying in the Lok Sabha last July, the Centre said the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway had opened to traffic in January 2023 and by the end of July, it had seen 121 deaths and close to 400 accidents.

According to the Karnataka government, most accidents were attributed to rash and negligent driving and casualties and accidents have come down since July. Many such accidents involved two-wheelers and plying of two-wheelers as well as three-wheelers on the highway was banned by the NHAI since August 1. The safety measures will now also focus on the ‘black spots’ for accidents.