Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway: Check tentative toll rates here

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely unveil the expressway this month or next. Pratap Simha said they approached the authorities to name the expressway as Cauvery Expressway.

Nidaghatta in Mandya district is 75 km from Bengaluru. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) sources said the toll rates were being finalised and would be launched for the first stretch and later for the second stretch.

According to the sources, the NHAI would issue monthly passes for light and heavy vehicles but restrict them to a specific number per month.

Presently, two-wheelers are being allowed on the expressway but once the motorists are charged for using roads, the NHAI plans to ban two-wheelers and three-wheelers on the main carriageway.

The 117-km expressway is being built at Rs 8,408 crore in two packages. Out of the total length, 52 km is greenfield consisting of five bypasses to reduce traffic congestion.

The project under the NHAI’s hybrid annuity model (HAM) costs around Rs 8,066 crore and its contractor is Dilip Buildcon Ltd. The road is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities from 150 minutes to 90 minutes.

Union Minister For Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inspected the expressway on January 5 and said it would be officially unveiled by February.

According to Gadkari, the Bengaluru-Mysuru corridor is a 10-lane project wherein four lanes – two lanes on either side — have been proposed for villages and towns attached to the highway while six lanes would connect the cities directly.

The authorities have already opened five bypasses between Bengaluru and Mysuru — the 7-km Srirangapatna bypass, a 10-km Mandya bypass, a 7-km section that bypasses Bidadi, a 22-km section that bypasses Ramanagaram and Channapatna and a 7-km section that bypasses Maddur.