The Hindu : Minister denies change in highway alignment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Minister denies change in highway alignment

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Jan. 20. Joining issue with the coastal highway controversy today, the Roads and Buildings Minister, T. Nageswara Rao, clarified that that the alignment being demanded by leaders of the Avanigadda area for the highway and the one indicated by the Government were one and the same. He said the bridge across the Krishna as part of this project would come up at Puligadda connecting Penumudi as envisaged in the original plan.

Mr. Nageswara Rao, however, explained at a press conference that the site for a bridge of this stature would normally be finalised after a geological survey, especially when proposed across a river, the Krishna. The selection of the Puligadda-Penumudi site was final but a deviation could not be ruled out if factors like soil strata and technical feasibility so dictated it.

The Minister's contention appears to be at variance with the stand taken by the agitating leaders, including the fasting former deputy Speaker of the Congress, B. Veda Vyas, who allege that the site has already been shifted to Nadikudur, 15 km from Puligadda. A map circulated by the Minister at the press conference showed the original alignment was intact.

Mr. Nageswara Rao said Congress leaders were spearheading the agitation even while the original alignment remained untouched and this might be due their lack of understanding of the facts or the stand taken to pretend as if they did not understand. If the agitation was for political gain, people would teach a lesson to them, the Minister said.

As far as the Government was concerned, it owed an explanation to people, he said, and appealed to people in the coastal districts that their interests were well taken care of by the Government and that they need not worry.

Tracing the antecedents, the Minister said, the National Highway No. 214 was taken up as decided by the Union Government connecting Kattipudi and Pamarru and it was under execution at a cost of Rs. 290 crores now. Representations were made from Krishna and Guntur districts for its extension up to Ongole. While positively responding, the Union Government wanted the State to follow its latest norms for finalising the alignment according to which the minimum width of the State highway should be 45 m free from litigation and encroachments.

Accordingly, Mr. Rao said the present alignment was finalised, starting from Palakole and connecting Narsapur, Mogaltur, Kruttivennu, Machilipatnam, Avanigadda, Repalli, Bapatla, Chirala and Ongole. This alignment was selected as it would cover all existing and prospective gas stations on the coast, apart from the Machilipatnam and Nizampatnam ports and Manginapudi beach. This, in fact, was the dream of the former Speaker, G. M. C. Balayogi, who actually proposed this highway. The benefit would be more under the present alignment than what it would have been if the extension was made straightway from Pamarru to Ongole, connecting Nidumolu, Gajulanka, Kuchipudi, etc. Under the direct extension, the bridge would have come up at Gajulanka where traffic was less.

The Roads Minister made it clear that the alignment suggested by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, in his January 4 letter to the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, K. M. Khanduri, was the one which was finalised. The highway conversion proposals marked for implementation under 10th Plan which were forwarded to the Union Government on January 4 with the Chief Minister's covering letter, envisaged conversion for a length of 5,062 km.

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