HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari virtually inaugurated and laid foundation for 14 national highway (NH) projects in Telangana on Monday.
The projects, which include 765.663 km long roads, are worth Rs13,169 crore. Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said that a total of 59 road works with approved length of 1,918 km and a cost of Rs 17,617 crore have been sanctioned for Telangana in the last six years. Of this, 1,782 km works, worth Rs 15,689 crore have already been cleared.
‘Most dists connected to a NH’
“Almost all of the 33 districts in the State have connectivity with the national highways. The remaining district of Peddapally will also be connected to the network soon,” he said. The event was virtually attended by Union Ministers G Kishan Reddy and Gen Dr V K Singh, Telangana Minister for Roads & Buildings Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Teleangana Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, MPs and MLAs. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, however, chose to opt out of the event.
While the construction of 841 km roads worth `4793 crore has been completed in the State since 2014-15, work is in progress on construction of another 809 km at a cost of Rs13,012 crore, Gadkari said. “During the current financial year, 13 major projects costing `8,957 cr for a length of 328 km are proposed to be awarded in the State.
Three major projects for 192 km worth Rs 2339 crore are under bidding process. Another 21 NH works with a total length of 1,422 km and total cost of `27,116 crore are under various stages of DPR preparation.
"These works are likely to be completed by FY 2024-25,” he added. Development of greenfield and access-controlled corridor has also been planned in Telangana to ease traffic on existing corridors, reduce travel time and costs, and also to provide a boost to the economy.
These include Surat, Ahmadnagar, Solapur, Kurnool, Chennai corridor (75 km length in Telangana), Suryapet, Khammam, Devarapalle sector (164 km in Telangana) and Indore-Hyderabad (136 km in Telangana). Gadkari also called upon Telangana to take up diversification of agriculture.
“The surplus may be converted to ethanol, which can be used as an alternative fuel,” he said.