HYDERABAD: Calling the Regional Ring Road (RRR) the gamechanger for Hyderabad's development, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy has said that the 347-km road, which would be built in two phases, would not only reduce traffic on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and save transit time, but also generate employment and livelihood opportunities. It would also enable 50 per cent of the population in Hyderabad to buy plots for housing at affordable rates in the 40-50 km distance between the ORR and RRR, he added.
Addressing the media in Hyderabad on Saturday, Reddy said that the phase-I part of the road would connect Sangareddy-Narsapur-Toopran-Gajwel-Jagdevpur-Bhuvanagiri and Choutuppal, for which land acquisition needs to be done in 18 villages of Sangareddy, 22 villages in Medak, 17 in Siddipet and 23 villages in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri districts, to lay the 156-km RRR cutting through these districts.
He said that the action plan for the RRR was prepared, permissions were granted, alignments were done and the project implementation units were being set up by the Centre in Gajwel and Kamareddy districts. He pointed out that the Centre has already requested the state government to set up three special land acquisition units.
Noting that 4,000 crore has been estimated to be the land acquisition cost for both phases of the RRR project which would have to be equally contributed by the state and Centre, he said the construction cost of the road would be borne entirely by the Centre.
The second phase of the project would link Choutuppal-Shadnagar-Sangareddy, for which detailed project reports were ready and the planning for parking areas, rest areas and othe basic infrastructure was done.
In addition to providing 4,85,00,000 man days of employment to labourers working on the laying of road, he predicted that IT and industrial development, shopping malls, highrise communities and villas would drive the development of the outer periphery of Hyderabad.
He also announced that under 'Gati Shakti,' action plans were getting ready for five special economic corridors in Telangana at a cost of Rs 22,706 crores, to lay 898 km of roads under the project.
He stated that the Hyderabad-Bengaluru National Highway NH 44 was being upgraded from four-lane to six-lane highway, which would be the 'super information highway' providing information advisories to travellers on traffic clearance, hospital and petrol bunk distance and so on. The detailed project report for this 251 km highway is being prepared and the cost of the project is estimated at Rs 450 crore.
He also disclosed that Rs 93,656 crore was spent in Telangana since 2014 for undertaking various road projects like national highways, connecting roads between 32 district headquarters with national highways (apart from roads laid under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna).