- The project is envisaged to ease traffic congestion in Bengaluru city by providing a bypass for freight traffic.
The much-anticipated 280-km Bengaluru Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) project, aimed at easing freight traffic and decongesting the tech capital, is finally progressing, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) issuing tenders for five key packages.
These packages, covering 144 km of the STRR’s western section, are estimated to cost Rs 4,750 crore. The access-controlled, four-to-six-lane expressway, officially designated as NH-948A, will connect suburban areas surrounding Bengaluru, including Dobbaspet, Doddaballapur, Devanahalli, Sulibele, Hoskote, Anekal, Thattekere, Kanakapura, Ramanagara, and Magadi.
Additionally, it will link Hosur in Tamil Nadu, providing an alternative route for trucks and commercial vehicles bypassing Bengaluru’s core areas.
STRR will also provide an alternative route to the NICE Road, especially for truck traffic heading from Tamil Nadu to states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. This new corridor will allow vehicles to divert before entering Hosur and connect to Tumakuru Road at Dobbaspet, thus streamlining the flow of freight.
Motorists travelling to Kempegowda International Airport from Hosur and Mysuru will also benefit from faster travel times by bypassing the city’s traffic.
Tender Details
The first tender package covers the 46.3 km stretch from Obalapura (Nelamangala taluk) to Somakkanamutta (Magadi taluk) and is estimated at Rs 1,419 crore. The second package, spanning 32.7 km from Somakkanamutta to Kunigal (Ramanagara taluk), is expected to cost Rs 825.1 crore.
Other key packages include Kunigal to Thattekere (33.64 km, Rs 978.9 crore), and Thattekere to Bagganadoddi (8.34 km, Rs 1,018.3 crore), which includes an elevated highway through the environmentally sensitive Bannerghatta National Park. The final package will connect Bagganadoddi to S Mudugadapalli (23.27 km) at an estimated Rs 507.39 crore, reports Moneycontrol.
Forest clearance for the section passing through Bannerghatta National Park is still pending, but NHAI officials have assured that noise barriers will be installed to minimise disruptions to wildlife. To further mitigate environmental impact, construction in the area will take place during non-peak wildlife activity hours.
Though originally proposed in 2005, the STRR greenfield expressway project gained momentum after the central government announced that the funding and execution would be undertaken under the Bharatmala Pariyojna project. The project is expected to cost Rs 17,000 crore.
While NHAI is funding 60 per cent of the project cost, the state government of Karnataka will fund the remaining corpus (mostly the cost towards land acquisition).
To manage the development of STRR, the Karnataka government set up a planning authority called STRR planning authority in 2016. The authority’s jurisdiction includes a planning area of 1,019 sq km. It will include 331 villages and 12 towns that will be connected.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in June 2022, and in March 2024, inaugurated the first 80 km of the project. This includes the Dobbaspete–Doddaballapur bypass and Doddaballapur–Hoskote section, built at a combined cost of over Rs 2,750 crore.