Minister for Social Welfare H.C. Mahadevappa, who is also the Minister in charge of Mysuru district, sought to set the record straight on the contribution of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance – 2 to improving the road infrastructure in the State.
At a function in Mysuru on Sunday in which Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari launched a series of road infrastructure projects by the National Highways, Mr. Mahadevappa, who had served as the Public Works Minister in the earlier Congress regime between 2013 and 2018, recalled the role played by him and then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to submit a proposal to the then UPA-2 government for upgrading State highways into national highways.
Recalling that the length of national highways in Karnataka was 4,482 km when he took over as Minister of Public Works in 2013, Mr Mahadevappa said the then State government prepared a detailed project report to upgrade some of the State highways into National Highways and the late Oscar Fernandes, who was the Minister for Surface Transport and Highways in the UPA-2 government, had sanctioned, declared and notified a total of 1,882 km of State highway as national highway in Karnataka.
After the UPA-2 regime ended in 2014, Mr. Mahadevappa said he and Mr. Siddaramaiah had Mr. Gadkari multiple times to take the proposal forward. The roughly 2,000 km of state highway declared as national highway by the UPA-2 was carried forward for development under the next regime, he said, adding that the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway and Bidar-Chamarajanagar highway were among the State highways that were upgraded to National Highways during UPA-2.
The State government had prepared another DPR for upgrading 10,000 km of State highways into NH and the project was pending approval before the Niti Aayog. He urged Mr. Gadkari to give approval for upgrading the State highways into NH and mentioned that the Kollegal-Malai Mahadeshwara road is also among them.
Mr. Mahadevappa hailed Mr. Gadkari for his commitment to development without paying any attention to political or ideological differences.
Mr. Mahadevappa’s statement assumes significance in the light of credit wars involving representatives of various political parties including Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and other Congress leaders over development projects particularly the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway.
Earlier, Mr. Mahadevappa faced embarrassing moments when a section of the gathering started shouting “Modi, Modi” as he took the podium to address to the audience.
