The Hindu Business Line : Govt keen on improving Bangalore infrastructure

IN its effort to maintain Bangalore's image as the Asian Silicon Valley, the State Government has announced several initiatives to improve the city's infrastructure.

A significant move is the decision of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to take up relaying of 900 km of road length within the city. The BMP has entered into a three-year maintenance contract for maintaining 2,000 km of existing roads.

Making these announcements at the meeting of the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission with the Chief Ministers of southern States and UT of Pondicherry held here today, the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr Dharam Singh, said that the sizeable IT sector had improved living standards but simultaneously had added pressure on the city's infrastructure.

"I am pleased to state that several positive steps have been taken to maintain and improve the infrastructure during the tenure of the present Government."

To further ease traffic congestion, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) will take up a peripheral road project at a cost of Rs 550 crore. In addition, the BDA would also execute four major flyovers at a cost of Rs 76 crore.

Meanwhile, work on the high-tech city project announced by the State Government is in an advanced stage and is being undertaken at a cost of Rs 390 crore.

The Chief Minister sought the help of the Union Government to include exports under software in the ASIDE scheme initiated by the Ministry of Commerce to promote infrastructure for export-oriented industries. According to Mr Singh, exports under software are not being taken into account while fixing the inter-State allocation under ASIDE.

"I feel that if 2 per cent of the value of software exports from Karnataka could be made available under ASIDE or a similar scheme for providing infrastructure for export-oriented IT industry, the State Government could further enhance its efforts to improve quality of infrastructure," the Chief Minister said.

More Stories on : Infrastructure | Karnataka

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