KAKINADA: The Bharatmala and Sagarmala four-lane national highways will benefit the Kakinada district and the Kakinada Smart City. The projects will connect the Annavaram National Highway to the Uppalanka area via Vakalapudi and Suryaraopeta roads.
As a result, travel between Vizag, Yanam and Amalapuram through Kakinada Smart City will become easier. Improved road connectivity is expected to provide significant relief from traffic congestion.
Kakinada Smart City will get relief from traffic difficulties with a greenfield four-lane road running from the Anchorage Port North Gate to the Uppalanka area within Kakinada rural limits. Heavy vehicles and transportation activities will soon be diverted to the outskirts of the city.
The road will run for five kilometres toward Jagannaickpur Salt Creek and Yetimoga to Uppalanka. This project will help many exporting companies save time and money and speed up transportation through easier access.
The five-kilometre stretch is expected to save more than 30 minutes of travel time. This highway will also change the transport route for hundreds of lorries.
Additionally, a third bridge over the Jagannaickpur Upputeru (Salt Creek) will be required. Former Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu laid the foundation stone for the third bridge on Upputeru in November 2018 to reduce city traffic congestion. The third-bridge project also includes proposals for a bypass road connecting National Highway 216 to the port, at an estimated cost of Rs 120 crore to Rs 146 crore.
Major exports from the deep-water port include rice, wheat, sugar and other food grains. Commodities such as urea, potash, phosphorus, granite, iron ore and other metals are handled for import and export.
Kakinada is home to a large fertiliser plant, Coromandel Fertilisers, and several oil refineries. Because of heavy traffic, the R&B, NHAI and district authorities have planned two bypass roads on the outskirts of Kakinada. One, on the west side (Yanam-Kakinada route), runs from Uppalanka to Kovvada via Cheediga, Madhavapatnam and Thimmapuram.
About 80 per cent of this work is complete. The other, on the east side, was proposed to run from Vakalapudi ADB Road to Valasapakala, via V.S. Lakshmi College and the Dairy Farm Centre to Old Port Police Station Road. That proposal was cancelled due to land acquisition issues, and the alignment was merged into the Sagarmala project.
The new alignment connects the Peddapuram Highway to Vakalapudi, Suryaraopeta lighthouse, NTR Beach, the fishing harbour, Sea Port Office and Anchorage Port. The project road continues from the Anchorage Port south gate to the Uppalanka road.
Kakinada district Joint Collector Apoorva Bharat said she had already directed the revenue and survey departments to begin the land equalisation process. She stated that a team of district officials from the concerned departments inspected the proposed four-lane road route.
Three options are being evaluated for the four-lane greenfield highway, said B Krishna Murthy, Project Director, NHAI. If completed, this road will shorten a 22-km route to just 5 km. Bridge construction is being considered under the three options, and the first option is most likely to be implemented.
