BANGALORE: Days after the shortcomings in this hi-tech city's infrastructure were exposed by heavy rains, Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh has highlighted a slew of measures to revamp roads and other facilities across the state.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Bangalore IT.in 2005 expo, Singh said the administration would spend billions of rupees to widen and improve roads, set up a metro rail project in Bangalore and build highways to divert heavy traffic from the city.
"Similarly, efforts are on to step up infrastructure in cities like Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga, Hassan, Belgaum and Bellary," he told delegates from India and abroad attending the expo.

Singh had recently come under attack from IT majors like Wipro and Infosys for the sorry state of affairs in the infrastructure sector. Heavy rains over the past few days had flooded roads across the city and led to the closure of most businesses.

Karnataka Governor T.N. Chaturvedi inaugurated the eighth edition of the four-day event in the presence of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, Chief Minister Singh and his deputy M.P. Prakash.

Listing the initiatives taken so far, Singh said apart from launching the Bangalore international airport project at Devanahalli, his government had cleared the Bangalore Metro project, which would be implemented once the central government granted its approval.

"About Rs.5 billion has been spent to improve and widen roads in and around Bangalore during the past 17 months. We are also seeking assistance from the union government to upgrade 38 roads with a total length of 492 km at an estimated cost of Rs.5.16 billion."