Vijayawada, July 30, 2021: Two stretches of the National Highway 516E in north Andhra Pradesh region have been taken up for development under the Green National Highways Corridor Project (GNHCP), and the development work is scheduled to be completed by December 2025, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, July 29. Gadkari was responding to a question from YSRCP MPs from Andhra Pradesh, PV Midhun Reddy and Gorantla Madhav. According to Gadkari’s response, an amount of Rs 1668.93 crore has been sanctioned to develop a total stretch of 210.89 km — 183.95 km from Koyyuru to Araku and 26.94 km from Bowdara to Vizianagaram — under the Green National Highways Corridor Project (GNHCP) scheme with loan assistance from World Bank.
The YSRCP MPs had posed a question in the Lok Sabha, seeking to know whether the Union government had any proposals to develop Green Highways to increase connectivity in Andhra Pradesh, and the details and time frame of any such project. Gadkari said that the NH 516E will be developed into Green Highways in six packages — Koyyuru to Chaprathipalem (45.50 km), Chaprathipalem to Lambasingi (39.50 km), Lambasingi to Paderu (48.43 km), Paderu to Gondiguda (25.08 km), Gondiguda to Araku (24.29 km) and Bowdara to Vizianagaram (26.94 km) according to the reports published in thenewsminute.com.
In December 2020, the World Bank signed a $500 million project with the Government of India, “to build safe and green national highway corridors” in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh under the Green National Highways Corridors Project. The project aims to construct highways “by integrating safe and green technology designs such as local and marginal materials, industrial byproducts, and other bioengineering solutions.” A delegation of YSRCP MPs led by MP V Vijayasai Reddy met Gadkari on July 27, Tuesday, and submitted a representation seeking upgradation of a few state highways in Visakhapatnam district into national highways.
