Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday virtually dedicated 18 National Highway (NH) projects and laid the foundation stone for another 17 NH projects, totalling a length of 1,134 km and at an estimated cost of ₹29,395 crore, in Andhra Pradesh.
The new NH projects help in enhancing inter-State connectivity through the Bengaluru-Kadapa-Vijayawada economic corridor and will provide better and faster road connectivity through greenfield highways.
On the occasion, Mr. Modi said 30% of the projects launched by him were allocated to A.P.. He expressed hope that the NH projects would play a catalytic role in the industrialisation of AP by creating the necessary road infrastructure.
Former Union Minister and BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari and Rajya Sabha MP C.M. Ramesh said the Central government was committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh, and that NHs costing ₹70,000 crore were laid in the State in the last 10 years.
A.P. Government Secretary (Roads & Buildings) P.S. Pradyumna said that A.P. has undertaken and completed the second largest number of NH projects after Uttar Pradesh. The Vijayawada-Bengaluru Economic Corridor costing ₹14,060 crore was the biggest of them, he said. He requested the Centre to take steps for speedy completion of the Vijayawada eastern bypass and Bhogapuram airport project near Visakhapatnam along with other prioritised ones.
MPs Vallabhaneni Balashowry and K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regional officer Rakesh Kumar Singh, NHAI DGMs Neeraj Gupta, K.V.D. Ranjani, Srinivas, M.K. Chaudhary and P.D. Rohit Kumar and others were present.
