Expressway fate will unfold at a slow pace

Revanna asks Principal Secretary to prepare note on the project and no time-frame has been fixed for submission of the report

BANGALORE, DHNS:

Public Works Minister H D Revanna on Thursday said he had directed Principal Secretary to the Public Works Department to provide a comprehensive report on the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Expressway project (Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor -BMIC) so that the government can take a decision on whether to go ahead with the project.

He was replying to queries by reporters in Bangalore on the status of the above project in the backdrop of demand by Janata Dal (S) supremo and his father H D Deve Gowda to drop the project.

Mr Revanna said any decision on the project would be taken by the government only after going through the comprehensive report to be filed by the PWD principal secretary. But, no time-frame had been set for filing the report. He would also discuss the issue with Chief Minister N Dharam Singh. He parried a question on whether the government would take up only the expressway component of the project by dropping the infrastructure corridor component which involved setting up of several townships.

Freedom from potholes?
Meanwhile, Mr Revanna said pot-holes in most of the districts of the state, barring some Malnad districts where it has been raining heavily, will be filled up before August 15. He said the process for tendering the pot-hole filling exercising had been completed. It would be the responsibility of superintendent and executive engineers of the areas concerned to ensure that the pot-holes are filled up, he said.
Mr Revanna, who also holds power portfolio, admitted that it had not been possible to provide round-the-clock power supply to all the villages though the government had announced such a facility recently.

In fact some villages were getting only 10 hours to 15 hours of power supply per day, the minister said blaming the lapses on the weak and aged power network which was unable to take more load.

The KPTCL had sought a subsidy allocation of about Rs 250 crore per month to provide subsidised power to farmers, he said. It had also asked the government to release the subsidy arrears running to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore.

Mr Revanna also dropped hints that the government may not provide free power to irrigation pumpsets by maintaining that such a proposal had not been made in the poll manifesto of coalition partners.

Though the coalition partners had not made such a poll assurance, farmers were hoping that the government would provide free power to them on the lines of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.