Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and their cabinet colleagues met with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on June 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Handle @TelanganaCMO on X
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has requested the Union Government to declare the southern stretch of Regional Ring Road as national highway.
The Central Government should also take up works for expanding the Hyderabad-Vijayawada national highway into six lanes. The CM made the request when he called on Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Wednesday.
He discussed about expansion of national highways in Telangana, declaration of new national highways and progress of works on roads that had been declared as national highways in the State, with Mr. Gadkari.
He briefed the Union Minister about the stretch from Sangareddy connecting Narsapur, Toopran, Gajwel, Jagdevpur, Bhuvanagiri and Choutuppal spanning 158.6 km that had been declared as NH and the State Government was bearing half the cost incurred towards land acquisition for it. The State Government had expedited works in this regard, he said, asking Mr. Gadkari to declare the road from Choutuppal connecting Amangal, Shadnagar and Sangareddy as national highway.
The Centre should declare the southern stretch of Regional Ring Road as national highway and sanction funds for the works under NHAI’s budget for the current financial year.
He said road from Gowrelli to Valigonda – Torrur – Nellikudur -Mahabubabad – Yellandu – Kothagudem had been declared as national highway but tenders were invited for single package of works spanning 69 km. He reminded Mr. Gadkari that the road reducing the distance between Hyderabad and Bhadrachalam had been termed as Jai Shriram road by the latter. Steps should accordingly be taken to speedily start works on three packages of 165 km for which tenders had been invited.
Referring to road connecting the capitals of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister said that the expansion of Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway (NH65) as six lane highway was scheduled for completion by April this year. But works were not completed on schedule as contractors did not take them up citing reduced traffic on the highway after State bifurcation.
More accidents
As a result, accidents were being witnessed on the road with movement of over 60,000 vehicles daily and several people lost their lives. The Central Government should intervene in the matter and resolve the stalemate between the contracting agency and the NHAI to expedite six laning of the important highway.
He recalled that the Centre had declared the 142 km road stretch connecting Kollapur-Somasila-Karivena-Nandyal as national highway and started works immediately and wanted the Minister to take initiative to start works on the remaining 32 km, including the iconic bridge and elevated corridor. The completion of works on this road would reduce the distance between Hyderabad and Tirupati by 70 km.
Mr. Reddy also requested the Union Minister to take steps to speedily execute several pending works in Telangana.
