In three years, the Telangana Government wishes to improve its road network, including highways, to such an extent that it intends to throw the best performing Gujarat off the top slot. Works are on to ensure “all borders can be reached within two or three hours from the district headquarters,” informed Minister for Roads & Buildings Tummala Nageswara Rao.
“We are determined to complete two-laning of roads leading from mandals to district headquarters and four-laning of roads from district headquarters to the State capital at a total cost of about Rs.17,000 crore. Our roads will be better than those in Singapore or Malaysia,” he declared, at a press conference here on Tuesday.
The Central Government is inclined to provide Rs.3,000 crore for building highways to connect neighbouring State capitals like Raipur, Amaravati, Bangalore, etc. “Detailed project reports (DPRs) were submitted for necessary approvals,” he said.
The Minister held a day-long brain storming session with his senior officials and engineers at the National Academy of Construction (NAC) to plan for the mammoth exercise of toning up the road network in the State and to speed up works removing bottlenecks.
Project reports
An effort to convert 1,850 km of State Highways to National Highways is underway with DPRs of 14 works submitted to the Union Government, out of which three were approved, while 12 DPRs are under progress. Another 2,282 km of single-lane roads are sought to be converted into double-lane at a cost of Rs.25,000 crore for which works are already under progress.
Repairs are going to be carried out on old roads to an extent of 4,350 km, he said.
Four-lane highways are under construction leading to Yadagirigutta and leading to the nearby temples as well as to connect to Rajiv Rahadhari towards Karimnagar, Warangal and other places.
The department has been entrusted with the task of constructing office complexes in all constituencies for which a sum of Rs.115 crore was sanctioned with Rs.1 crore for each office.
“Works will commence wherever sites are allotted by the District Collector concerned. We are also taking up renovation of old guesthouses which are in bad shape, and construction of new ones at different places with a suite reserved for the MPs of the area. All works assigned to the department will be completed on time and qualitatively,” he said.
