Bangalore: Prime Minister Manohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the country's first 10-lane elevated highway in Bangalore on Saturday.
At the ceremony, Karnataka Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy announced Rs 500 crore for upgrading all major roads and an international standard traffic management programme to ease congestion.
He also announced Rs 5000 crore on city infrastructure during the year as the Bangalore International Airport would be operational in 2008 as per schedule. It would have capacity to handle 11.8 million passengers annually.
Prime Minister said Bangalore is on the highway of rapid growth. But wind swept roads and fancy cars alone do not reflect progress, it has to be accompanied by good road manners and discipline, he emphasised.
"Building modern roads and driving modern cars is not the end all and be all of progress. Good road manners and adherence to road discipline are equally important," he said at a national highway project function here.
"I think we must ask ourselves, why can't we be more polite to each other, more caring of each other, more respectful of each other," Singh asked.
The Prime Minister said people must learn road manners, how to give way to pedestrians, how to observe normal rules while overtaking, how to park and when not to blow a horn.
"These are simple rules, but their observance makes a lot of difference to our daily lives," he said.
He added: "We Indians behave with great courtesy at home and with our family and friends. But sometimes, when we go out we leave these good manners at home. On the road, we lose control of our good senses. Why should this be so?"
(With agency inputs)
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