119 km Bengaluru – Mysuru Expressway, developed under the Union Government's flagship Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP), will be officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first week of March.

With most portions of the expressway open for vehicular traffic, the opening of the seven km long Srirangapatna bypass last week marked the completion of the project. A few minor works related to bridges that are pending are expected to be completed soon.

While the Srirangapatna Bypass was opened for commuters on Jan 28, another critical link -the Mandya bypass- was opened three days before that.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, who played an instrumental role in working with the union government to expedite the funding and land acquisition related to the project, confirmed that the expressway would be officially inaugurated in March first week by PM Modi. 

The 10-lane expressway ( two-lane service roads on both sides) was conceptualised and executed as two distinct packages: 58 km Phase 1 between Bengaluru and Nidaghatta and 61 km Phase 2 between Nidaghatta and Mysore. The expressway comprises of 8- km-long elevated corridors, nine major bridges, 42 minor bridges, 64 underpasses, 11 overpasses, four Road-Over-Bridges (ROBs) and five bypasses.

The expressway comprises six bypasses at Bidadi (7 km), Ramanagara and Channapatna (22 km), Maddur (7 km), Mandya (10 km) and Srirangapatna (7km).

The project's estimated cost is more than Rs. 8,000 crores and includes brownfield and greenfield sections. Leading infrastructure firm Dilip Buildcon executed both packages.

The expressway originates near the NICE Road on the outskirts of Bengaluru and terminates near the Outer Ring Road junction in Mysuru.

The expressway is set to reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru to 90 minutes.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will shortly notify the toll rates for the expressway.