HYDERABAD:Soon people of Andhra Pradesh will have to cough up more money at toll plazas, if they want to travel even on internal roads in the state.
Similar to Madhya Pradesh, where 10,000 km of roads were developed with private investments, the state government is planning to develop all roads in the state whether they are state highways, district roads or internal roads on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode in a phased manner.
In the first phase, it has identified 3,500 km of roads across the state to develop them either on PPP mode or annuity mode.
Of these 3,500 km, majority portion of roads are internal roads in Guntur and Krishna districts which connect the new capital, Amaravati, with other key cities such as Hyderabad, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam. Out of the identified roads for the first phase of development, some roads are those which connect ports and proposed industrial clusters with the new capital city.
“The state government is of the view that very soon traffic flow on these roads will increase drastically once the state government’s headoffices start functioning from the new capital. Hence, it wants to widen these roads based on the traffic flow,” a senior official said.
According to sources, the Roads and Buildings department, which is maintaining 45,831 km of roads comprising national highways, state highways and major district roads, across the state, is undertaking a ‘Techno-economic Feasibility Study’ in the identified 3,500 km of roads to award the development works of these roads either on PPP mode or annuity mode to private developers.
“As part of this development, roads will be expanded. That means, single lane roads will be widened into double lane roads and double lane roads into four lane based on the traffic flow,” said source.
Works will be awarded on PPP mode to contractors for those roads where there is scope for enough traffic flow . Where there is not enough traffic flow, the works will be awarded on annuity mode to contractors where a fixed amount will be paid to the developer.
Roads for development under phase-1
■Guntur-Sattenapally-Piduguralla-Nalgonda
■Guntur-Sattenapally-Piduguralla-Macherla-Nagarjuna Sagar
■Guntur-Tenali-Repalle
■Guntur-Bapatla-Chirala
■Guntur-Atmakur-Kurnool
■Satyavedu-Puttur in Chittoor district
■Chittoor-Tiruttani
■Mulakalacheruvu-Thamballapalle