Union Minister of State for Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Ramesh Jigajinagi has said that works on upgrading the Vijayapura-Solapur highway would start soon as the tender process has been completed.
In a release here, he said that the contract has been allocated to a private firm for converting the two-lane road into a four-lane highway connecting two districts in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
He said that it was a long-pending demand of the people of these two districts to have a four-lane highway as the existing road is narrow.
The road is being used mostly by inter-State heavy good vehicles and a mere 100 km is covered in nearly two hours.
Upgradation is essential since Solapur has several super-speciality hospitals where patients from Vijayapura are referred to for better treatment. Owing to heavy traffic on the existing lane, ambulances take longer time to reach hospitals which could prove costly to those in need of immediate medical attention.
Owing to heavy flow of traffic on the narrow road, the number of accidents has sharply increased over the last few years.
The release said that considering all these critical aspects, the Union government has decided to upgrade the road by allocating ₹ 1,576 crore for the project.
Mr. Jigajinagi said that as per the contract, the project should be completed within 30 months of commencement.
Tenders have been allotted to the private agency on Build, Operate and Transfer basis.
He said that the project is part of the third phase of the national highway development programme in the country.
Giving details of the projects, he said that the 109-kilometre stretch has three major bridges, 54 small bridges, five overbridges and 11 underpasses.
After the completion of the project, the four-lane highway is expected to ease traffic movement to a great extent, the release added.