Senior BJP leader Suresh C. Angadi has expressed concern over the delay in commencing development works under the smart city project, when other selected cities had started implementing it. He held the Congress government responsible for neglecting development and progress of Belagavi city.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said that Belagavi and Davangere were selected for the project eight months ago. But, the government was wasting time on procedural matters.
It was only on Tuesday that the government appointed a chief executive officer for the special purpose vehicle under the project, which was an indication of how “serious” it was towards issues concerning the development and progress of Belagavi.
Mr. Angadi said the centre had so far released Rs.196 crore toward implementation of the project in the first phase. The government was required to provide matching grants and the Belagavi City Corporation Rs.100 crore.
In addition to the works identified under the project, there were other works which needed to be taken up on a priority basis.
The government recently accepted the long-pending proposal on constructing a bypass road from Machhe to Halga to connect Pune-Bengaluru NH4 with the Belagavi-Panjim NH4A, which would reduce vehicular congestion to a great extent.
