Mysuru: Certain stretches of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) of Mysuru city have been declared as National Highways so as to avoid the Highway heavy vehicle traffic from passing through the city, according to a communication in this regard sent on Jan. 8 this year to Director General, Road Development and Special Secretary to Government of India, by the Karnataka Public Works Department (PWD). This comes after K.C. Biddappa, President of Sankalp Mahal Apartment Owners Welfare Association, Lalitha Mahal Palace Road, Siddarthanagar, writing to the Office of the Prime Minister on 30.11.2015 to shelve the project of widening National Highway 212 inside Mysuru city limits. The Superintending Engineer, National Highways, PPP Cell, Bengaluru, has confirmed this declaration in a letter he has written to K.C. Biddappa on 29.6.2018. In his letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, Biddappa had opposed the widening of a five-kilometre stretch of the National Highway 212 passing through Lalitha Mahal Palace Road and said that the widening project will affect the public health and safety of residents apart from destroying hundreds of fully-grown trees.
