A slew of projects to ease traffic congestion in the city received Cabinet nod on Tuesday. The Cabinet cleared the proposal for making five important traffic corridors signal-free. They are: Mysore Road to Central Silk Board, Central Silk Board to Vellara Junction, Rajkumar Road to Yeshwantpur Circle, Vellara Junction to National Highway 4 near Kundalahalli and Mekhri Circle to Hope Farm near Whitefiled.

According to sources, the project is estimated to cost about `630 crore. The Cabinet is also said to have agreed to start the tender process for developing five arterial roads in the Central Business District of Bangalore.

The roads are: St Marks Road, Richmond Road, Residency Road, Vittal Mallya Road and Commissariat Road.

The five roads would be developed under the Tender SURE system.

According to sources, the Cabinet deferred a decision on the CID report on irregularities in recruitment of probationary officers by KPSC in 2011.

The government is thinking of cancelling the selection list and starting a fresh process for selection of candidates.

It is said to have decided to seek legal opinion before taking a final decision.

The Cabinet also proposed to set up a Regional Drug Testing Laboratory in Hubli at a cost of `9 crore, establish a comprehensive bio-technology centre at T Narasipura for storing a gene pool of native breeds of various crops.

It is learnt that it has decided to appoint Justice H N Nagamohan Das as a judicial member of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT).