WB approves 350 million US Dollar loan for Karnataka’s road development

The World Bank has approved 350 million US Dollar loan to accelerate the development of Karnataka’s core road network through the Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project.
Karnataka has identified about 25,000 kms of the most important traffic corridors and designated them as the state’s core road network.
The Second phase of the Project will finance improvements in 1,231 kms of roads into two lanes. The first phase of the project amounting to 360 million USD was implemented from 2001 to 2007 for improvement and maintenance of 2,385 kms of State Highways and Major District Roads.
Vehicular traffic in the state has been rapidly growing at the rate of 10 to 15 percent per year in the last decade. Karnataka also accounts for 10 per cent of the total road accident cases in India. The high fatality rate in Karnataka is attributed to lack of effective road safety management and enforcement system.