Vijayawada, February 19, 2022: The Central government will spend nearly ₹3 lakh crore on development of highways and roads in Andhra Pradesh in the next two years, Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari announced on Thursday.
Gadkari was speaking at Vijayawada after laying the foundation stone for 51 various road projects being taken up at a cost of ₹21,000 crore in the state, along with chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. Of them, 30 road projects run into 735 km with an estimated cost of ₹10,368 crore and 21 projects measuring 645 km with a cost of ₹11,191 crore.
The Union minister also inaugurated a second flyover at the busy Benz Circle in the city on Chennai-Kolkata national highway.
The Union minister said six out of the 23 greenfield express highways taken up by the Centre in the last five years were in Andhra Pradesh. They include the Raipur-Visakhapatnam (465 km) which will be completed by 2024, Nagpur to Vijayawada highway which will be completed by 2025, Chittoor-Tanjavur highway, Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam highway and Bangalore-Chennai highway which runs through 85 km in AP, all of which will be completed before 2025.
Describing Andhra Pradesh as a progressive state with a good potential for development, Gadkari said the road network played a vital in the development of the state and assured that the Centre would extend all help.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said expansion and development of the highways had been a priority for the state government. He said the state government had allocated highway ₹10,600 crore for the state highways, including ₹6,400 crore for connecting the district headquarters to revenue blocks through two-lane highways, ₹2,300 crore for repair and maintenance and ₹1,700 crore for the pending works.
Jagan also requested the Union minister for sanctioning of a six-lane connectivity of Visakhapatnam port to Bhogapuram and converting a few state highways into national highways according to the reports published in hindustantimes.com.
The other proposals include converting state highways into national highway in Kadapa, Prakasam, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. The state highways went up in the state from 4,193 km in 2014 to 8,163 km registering a growth of over 95 per cent.
The function was attended by MPs, state ministers, MLAs, officials and others which minister of state for road transport and highways, Gen. (Retd) VK Singh, joined virtually.
