Bengaluru (PTI): Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday appealed to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to clear projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore in the state.

He also requested him to undertake projects related to ring roads in Raichur, Gadag, Koppal and Shivamogga as well.

"We mainly discussed the works of the national highway. Work is presently underway in projects worth around Rs 46,830 crore but still work on projects worth more than Rs 1 lakh has to be done. A decision has been taken to fast track those projects," Bommai told reporters after a meeting with Gadkari here on Thursday.

He also said the STRR (Satellite Town Ring Road) project is coming up at the Bannerghatta Reserved Forest.

Since it is an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), the chief minister asked the wildlife committee to recommend an alternative route as the state government does not want the project to go through the Bannerghatta Reserved Forest.

"We have asked the state wildlife committee to make an alternative route for that. We have said that we don't want the project to go through the Bannerghatta Reserved Forest. They have agreed for it. The length and the cost of the project will increase but we have said we are not bothered about it. We have asked the officials to come up with an alternative route outside Bannerghatta," Bommai said.

Bommai said Gadkari also agreed to sanction Rs 1,000 crore for the Railway Over Bridge (ROB) and Railway Under Bridge (RUB).

The chief minister said these ROB and RUBs are required in Ballari, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, and Belagavi.

There were also discussions on the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) in Bengaluru. The leaders also spoke about the Raichur Ring Road, Koppal Ring Road, Gadag Ring Road and Shivamogga Ring Road.

"He has agreed to take up these ring road projects. We will be taking up the land acquisition, for which he agreed," Bommai said.

Gadkari was in Bengaluru to inspect the Chennai-Bengaluru Expressway and Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway project.

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Indore, May 10 (PTI): The Holkar Stadium in Indore received a bomb blast threat, with the unidentified sender of an e-mail warning of retaliation in response to Operation Sindoor, police said on Saturday.

The threat turned out to be a hoax.

"MPCA's (Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association) official email (ID) on Friday received a threatening message. The email, written in English, mentions that the stadium will be blasted due to 'Operation Sindoor' (of Indian armed forces)," Tukoganj police station in-charge Jitendra Singh Yadav told PTI.

After being alerted by MPCA, four teams of police personnel and a bomb squad thoroughly searched the stadium's premises for five hours.

"No suspicious thing was found in the Holkar stadium," Yadav said.

Police are trying to trace the origin of the hoax e-mail in collaboration with the cyber squad, and legal action will be taken.

Prima facie, the email seems a "copy-paste" job for mischief, although the police are investigating various aspects, an officer said.

The officer said that in the past months, fake emails threatening to bomb Indore airport, bank branches, hospitals, and schools have been received.

He said an accused has been arrested in one case.