White-topping 3.0: Bommai keen to do what Yediyurappa wouldn’t

With Bengaluru’s road infrastructure crumbling, the state government appears keen on reviving the third phase of the white-topping project, which it had kept in cold storage in mid-2019.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is learnt to have held at least two rounds of discussions with senior officials on allocating special grants for the controversial project pegged at Rs 1,154 crore.

Authorities had finalised the tenders for white-topping 121.70 kilometres spread over 89 roads under Phase III when H D Kumaraswamy was the chief minister. But one of the first things that B S Yediyurappa did after becoming chief minister in 2019 was to withdraw the grants earmarked for the project. He cited irregularities in the tender process and multiple delays in completing Phase I (94 km) and Phase II (63 km).