Rainwater on highways to be used for power generation across Karnataka: CM Bommai

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Feb 28, 2022: A project to make electricity using rainwater flowing along national highways will be implemented along the stretch from Karnataka’s Kittur to Belagavi, which reaches up to the Maharashtra border, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday.

 

The project, under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan, aims to channel rainwater and build small waterbodies to generate power.

After Union minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation for five national highways, Bommai said the Centre’s Jal Shakti project would be implemented along all the highways in the state, and urged Gadkari to complete the construction of Ring Road in Belagavi and other cities. Bommai said Belagavi would witness a revolution in connectivity with the national highway projects. Gadakari has shown how to mobilise resources and implement infrastructure projects, he said and recalled how the latter had, as Maharashtra public works minister, “drawn national attention by building more than 58 road overbridges in quick time”. Over 5,000km of national highways have been developed in the state since Gadkari became Union road minister, the chief minister said.

The five highway projects, together costing Rs 3,972 crore, are from Belagavi to the Sankeshwar bypass, from the Sankeshwar bypass up to the Maharashtra border, from Chorla to Jamboki to Belagavi to Vijayapura to Muragundi (NH 548B), and from Siddapura to Vijayapura (NH 561A).

Bommai assured Gadkari that his government would exempt from the state GST the projects for developing highways and ring roads as well as for land acquisition for the projects.

The BJP leader said that Gadkari had drawn up a novel project linking Maharashtra’s pilgrim centres such as Pandharpur and Shirdi with those in Karnataka, such as Badami, Pattadakal, and praised Union minister Pralhad Joshi and other party MPs for their efforts to contribute to the state’s development.

Courtesy:Indian Express