Elevated expressway opens

The much-awaited elevated expressway between Silk Board junction and Electronic City junction, built for Rs 765 crore, was opened to public use today. A consortium comprising Soma Enterprise Ltd, Nagarjuna Construction Company and Maytas Infra Ltd constructed the 9.985 km long elevated road project.

The project, executed through a special purpose vehicle, Bangalore Elevated Tollway Ltd, was built on a build operate transfer basis for the National Highways Authority of India. The construction of the elevated highway was delayed by one and a half years, mainly due to the delay in land acquisition and shifting of utilities.

The project consists of a 4-lane, 2-way elevated highway and 6 lanes of divided main carriageways on the ground with service road on either side. It has a 4-lane flyover at Bommasandra, 6-lane flyovers at Chandapura and Attibele, eight pedestrian underpasses and 16 bus bays and shelters.

The consortium has set up a highway traffic management system comprising of CCTV surveillance of the roads, automatic traffic counters and classifiers, meteorological stations, variable message signs and emergency call boxes for the road users.

The consortium will operate and maintain the roads in the stretch between Silk Board junction and inter-state border for the next 18 years.

For using the four-lane elevated corridor, two-wheelers have to pay Rs 10 for one way, Rs 20 for multiple use. The monthly pass is priced at Rs 30.

For cars it will be Rs 30 for one way, Rs 45 for multiple use and Rs 900 for monthly pass. For LCVs, Rs 40, 65 & 1255. For buses nd trucks: Rs 85, 125 and 2,550 respectively.