A view of the Belagavi airport at Sambra.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
The Public Works Department of Karnataka will take up widening and make improvements to parts of the road between Belagavi city and the airport in Sambra.
PWD and district in-charge Minister Satish Jarkiholi told reporters in Belagavi on July 28 that the project will include upgradation, widening, four-laning of the Sambra road, and removing bottlenecks along the route.
The project is expected to cost ₹72 crore. Around ₹17 crore will be spent on land acquisition, and ₹55 crore on road construction and improvement. Upgrade of the 4-kilometre road includes laying a divider, building footpaths, and illumination. As of now, eight kilometres of the 13-km route has four lanes.
The road is among the most widely used roads in the district as it connects Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts. The number of vehicles increases several fold during the winter session of the Karnataka Assembly. Traffic snarls are common during heavy rains and during VIP visits to the city.
Satish Jarkiholi said the department is also considering the demand of some villagers to upgrade the 12-km road between Sambra and Suvarna Vidhana Soudha via Shindholi, Mastamaradi and Halaga villages. The circular ring road that would pass through the vicinity of the Suvarna Soudha, VTU and the airport is expected to take a significant portion of the traffic burden on the city’s roads, according to him.
The government is considering developing an additional service road along the Pune-Bengaluru national highway to provide seamless connectivity to Belagavi and surrounding villages. As of now, there is a service road on only one side of the highway, and it is used as a two-way road, causing great inconvenience to commuters. What is more, it does not have a footpath. Such issues can be resolved by developing a shoulder way at Gandhi Nagar.
“Land acquisition will be completed, and work will begin in August. We hope to inaugurate the improved road before the winter session,” the Minister said.
Apart from all this, a technical committee is looking into the feasibility of building a flyover to connect the airport with the city, the Minister said.
Published – July 30, 2025 01:43 pm IST
