VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed officials to resolve all issues related to land acquisition, forest and wildlife clearances for ongoing and upcoming State and National Highway projects by the end of July.
Holding a review meeting with senior officials and contractors at the State Secretariat on Monday, he expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in certain projects, and made it clear that no further delay in road construction will be tolerated.
Officials informed him that 770 km of roads were completed in the last financial year at a total cost of Rs 11,325 crore.
Mentioning that Andhra Pradesh has a total of 8,744 km of National Highways, they also informed that of these, 4,406 km fall under the jurisdiction of NHAI, 641 km are managed by the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), and 3,697 km come under the purview of NH (R&B).
At present, 144 road projects covering a length of 3,483 km are under construction in the State, taken up by NHAI and MoRTH at an estimated cost of Rs 76,856 crore. Of the total, 1,392 km are NHAI roads, while 2,091 km fall under MoRTH.
Naidu has set an ambitious target to complete 1,040 km of road works in the current year itself. These projects worth Rs 20,067 crore, are expected to significantly boost road connectivity in the State.