Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has requested the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari to accord permission for the southern part of the proposed 340 km expressway, regional ring road, at an early date as it will enable seamless flow of traffic from north to south and east to west benefiting people of not only Telangana but also of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The State gvernment had submitted alignment proposals and traffic data of Choutuppal-Shadnagar-Sangareddy section (182 km) along with necessary clarifications sought by the Union Ministry. The Chief Minister who is in New Delhi made this request when he called on Mr. Gadkari on Monday. He thanked the Union Minister for sanctioning the northern part of the expressway Sangareddy-Gajwel-Choutuppal (158 km) under the Bharatmala Pariyojana.
The alignment of the expressway was proposed in 2018 and the government took up certain development works like Gajwel ring road and Baswapur reservoir as part of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme. He wanted the Minister to keep these developments in view and consider and accept the modifications to the National Highway Authority of India in the alignment from Gajwel to Yadadri suggested by the State government.
The Chief Minister thanked the Union government for declaring 2,168 km of State roads as national highways and according in principle approval for upgradation of 3,306 km as national highways. Of the balance 1,138 km, four roads - Choutuppal-Amangal-Shadnagar-Kandi (part of regional ring road), Karimnagar-Sircilla-Kamareddy-Yellareddy-Pitlam, Kothakota-Gudur up to Mantralayam and Zaheerabad-Bidar- Deglur were important for the development of Telangana in general and tourism and inter-State connectivity in particular.
The government has already submitted necessary proposals for upgradation of the four roads as national highways, he said requesting the Minister to notify the roads as national highways at the earliest. The Chief Minister also welcomed the Union ministry’s notification of new national highway (NH 167K) from Kalwakurthy to Nandyal via Kolhapur, Somasila and Karivena.
The highway would open up backward areas in Nagarkurnool district in Telangana as well as Atmakur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. With the proposed development to national highway standards, the distance between Hyderabad and Tirupati would reduce by 80 km. Mr. Rao wanted Mr Gadkari to ensure sanction of four laning of Hyderabad (ORR) – Kalwakurthy section on NH-765 keeping in view the present and future traffic requirements.
Allocate more funds under CRIF
In a separate memorandum, the Chief Minister said the government has submitted proposals for development of State roads under the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) for an outlay of ₹744 crore to the Centre. The proposals were finalised duly considering VIP references received from the MPs as per their priority.
The Union Ministry was however allocating only around ₹250 crore a year under CRIF, he said requesting Mr. Gadkari to sanction the pending CRIF proposals and increase allocation of funds under CRIF enabling completion of the proposed project within two financial years.
