Bidar-Hattigudur road to be upgraded soon

gulbarga: work on upgrading the 189-km bidar-hattigudur road to national highway standards will begin on march 15. public works minister n. dharam singh told reporters here on saturday the upgrading of bidar-hattigudur road was part of the bidar-srirangapatna road project. the latter is being upgraded with world bank funds. the minister said road works with the aid of world bank had begun in the state but due to some reasons the bidar-hattigudur stretch had been delayed.``even though the work should have begun in january, it could not be started. it will now be started on march 15,'''' he added. the contract has been awarded to the hindustan constructions. dharam singh said, under phase i, some 1,284 of the 2,300 km of state highways in karnataka had been taken up for upgradation. the tenders for the remaining works were being finalised. the world bank had sanctioned rs 2,035 crore for the same, he added. the representative of hindustan constructions, bhaskaran, who was present at the press conference, said the 189-km stretch of bidar-hattigudur will be upgraded within four years. ``i''m sure we will meet the deadline.'''' bhaskaran said the 30-km stretch of road after jewargi towards shahapur -- from the 512th km to 542nd km -- will be taken up in the first phase, and will take around a year to complete. in the next two years, 110 km would be completed, and the rest -- 41 kilometres -- will be taken up in the fourth year, he said. he, however, stated that the 8 km of bidar-hattigudur state highway, which passes through gulbarga city, would not be taken up by his company, and the work on this patch would be undertaken by the public works department. ``we take the road from bidar to devanand automobiles on the outskirts of the city on the bidar side, and from the ram mandir to hattigudur on the other side of gulbarga,'''' he added. stating that the preliminary survey for upgradation work had been completed, bhaskaran said the machinery required had already landed at chennai, and units for the stone crushing had already been set up outside gulbarga. ``our office has also started functioning in the city,'''' he added. questioned whether rs 80 lakh for upgrading per kilometre of road was not ``high'''', he replied that the road, when completed, would be very much better than the present national highways in the state. ``the road would not need maintenance for the next 10 years.'''' he, however, stated he could not give a guarantee on the road as his company was only implementing the specifications derived by the consulting agency, the scott wilson & company. ``the company gives us the design and the specifications, and we do accordingly.'''' bhaskaran said the 50.5-km stretch after shahapur on the hattigudur side had to be completely rebuilt as it had gone bad completely. he also stated that the company would make the complete stretch of bidar-hattigudur traffic worthy by filling up potholes. the new road would be seven metres wide, with drains on either side. ``the total width including the road, drains and extra space would be 12 meters,'''' he added.