Rs 350 cr to ease traffic

To ease the traffic congestion in Bangalore city, which is a major concern for the government, an ambitious project called 'B-TRAC 2010' is to be taken up.

The cost of the project is Rs 350 crore and will begin this year and it will be on till 2010-11. A sum of Rs 44 crore has been set aside towards this for financial year 2006-07.

The traffic project aims at a significant reduction in traffic congestion by adopting the most modern technologies and strategies like intelligent transportation systems (ITS), modernisation of traffic police and enforcement automation.

A sum of Rs 30 crore has been provided for the construction of railway overbridges and underbridges in the state and for commuter rail services in Bangalore, the government has earmarked Rs 10 crore.

The state government is also determined to complete the Bangalore-Mysore doubling of railway track.

"So far the funds had been provided for the second track from Bangalore to Ramnagara. In 2006-07, I propose to allocate Rs 25 crore for doubling of the track from Ramanagar to Mysore," said Yediyurappa.

For the Hassan-Mangalore gauge conversion an amount of Rs 15 crore has been provided. Thus the allocation towards the railway projects in 2006-07 is Rs 95 crore and is 111 per cent more than the allocation in 2005-06, which was Rs 45 crore, he added.