VIJAYAWADA: The State government has set in motion an ambitious master plan to upgrade Andhra Pradesh’s road network, targeting the restoration of over 10,200 kilometres of state highways alongside a massive Rs 1.93-lakh crore expansion of National Highway corridors.
According to official data, out of the total 45,433-kilometre R&B road network in the State, 12,593 km are currently in good condition or within the Defect Liability Period (DLP).
Restoration works covering 10,238 km are currently underway, while routine annual maintenance is being executed for another 22,602 km.
Following the completion of the ‘Mission Pothole-Free Roads’ initiative in 2024–25—where Rs 785.39 crore was spent out of the allocated Rs 810 crore — the government allocated Rs 3,014 crore for the ongoing 10,238-km road restoration programme.
To date, 3,501 km across 28 districts have been restored at an expenditure of Rs 1,479 crore, recording a 34.2% completion rate. In addition, Rs 90 crore has been earmarked to complete 14 pending bridge projects by December 2027, alongside Rs 300 crore sanctioned for 78 infrastructure works ahead of Godavari Pushkaralu 2027, targeted for completion by May 30, 2027.
Several key development proposals are currently awaiting financial and administrative clearances. These include Rs 818.63 crore for reconstructing 100 dilapidated bridges (currently pending with the Finance Department), Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) submitted for 468 km of CC roads valued at Rs 926.30 crore and Full Depth Reclamation (FDR) proposals worth Rs 757.24 crore covering 540.65 km.
A DPR has also been submitted for the 24-km Tenali–Mangalagiri corridor under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) at an estimated cost of Rs 598.91 crore. To modernise road maintenance, the government is introducing tech-driven interventions, including the ‘Road Doctor’ — an infrared recycling road repair system — and an AI/ML-driven dashcam video processing system to automatically detect road defects, for which a Request for Proposal (RFP) has been floated.
Under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models, 11 projects spanning 669 km are proposed at an outlay of Rs 5,185 crore (including Rs 2,196 crore for acquiring 1,483 acres of land, utility shifting, and R&R, with the state’s Viability Gap Funding share at Rs 501 crore).
DPRs for six of these projects worth Rs 2,564 crore have been submitted. The R&B Department has also proposed transferring 10% of the “Road Safety Cess” collected under new vehicle registration rules to the APRDC to finance PPP and HAM projects.
On the National Highways front, official reports confirm that Andhra Pradesh has consistently ranked among the top-performing states in the country, constructing 1,549 km over the past two financial years.
The State secured the 4th position nationally in 2024–25 by constructing 770 km (exceeding its 760-km target) at Rs 11,325 crore and climbed to 3rd position in 2025–26 by completing 779 km at Rs 12,000 crore. Continuous bituminous concrete (BC) paving on NH-544G (Bengaluru–Kadapa–Vijayawada Economic Corridor) also set a Guinness World Record.
For the current 2026–27 fiscal, a target of 653 km has been set with an allocation of Rs 12,500 crore, of which 180 km has already been constructed at a cost of Rs 2,953 crore.
Under the 2026–27 Annual Plan, NHAI and MoRTH have together proposed 107 new projects covering 2,594 km at a combined cost of Rs 75,293 crore (NHAI: 21 works covering 645 km at Rs 53,637 crore; MoRTH: 86 works covering 1,949 km at Rs 21,656 crore).
In total, seven mega National Highway projects spanning 1,408 km with an estimated outlay of Rs 1.18 lakh crore are currently in the State’s project pipeline.