BHUBANESWAR: The Finance Minister on Monday announced that the 464 km Raipur-Vishakhapatnam Expressway passing through Chhattisgarh, Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh will be awarded and construction will start in 2021-22.
The Odisha portion of the 6-lane expressway will have a length of 240.37 km and pass through Nabarangpur and Koraput districts. Estimated to cost Rs 8,092 crore, the road will connect Dhanara village of Nabarangpur district to Tumbigura of Koraput district.
The road will pass through 129 villages - 70 in Nabarangpur district and 59 Koraput district, official sources said.
The project sanctioned under Bharatmala scheme in 2017 has been hanging fire due to a host of problems like public resistance to land acquisition and delay in obtaining forest clearance.