Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of progress in the newly sanctioned national highways in the State.
The Minister expressed unhappiness that the officials concerned had not even completed the preparation of the detailed project reports pertaining to five State highways that were handed over to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Conveying his displeasure over the “snail’s pace” at which the works were progressing, the Minister said the government would take a serious view if the delay continued and directed the officials to prepare plans for acquisition of land required within 15 days. The Minister reviewed the ongoing works related to the five projects for which the Central government had sanctioned ₹ 8,000 crore. The projects are Sangareddy-Nanded-Akola at an estimated cost of ₹ 2,300 crore, Jagtial-Karimnagar-Warangal at ₹ 2,500 crore, Kodad-Khammam at ₹ 700 crore, Suryapet-Khammam at ₹ 1,000 crore and Mancherial-Chandrapur at ₹ 1,500 crore.
The Minister said the officials and consultants could not achieve the desired progress in finalising the by-pass roads for these projects leave alone the commencement of works. The officials concerned would have to effectively supervise the works taken up by consultants failing which action would be initiated against them. Works should be executed within a specific time frame and officials should initiate steps for acquisition of land required for these projects without any delay, he said. Recalling that the NHAI had prepared alignments for the five roads after considering the costs, he said the national body was not in favour of by-pass roads abutting towns like Palair, Kusumanchi, Khammam, Waira and Sattupalli. Efforts should be made to ensure that people were not inconvenienced by land acquisition and demolition of existing structures while finalising the alignment of the proposed highways and the Officials should set up joint teams with the Railways, Singareni Collieries Company Limited, Irrigation dept., and other departments for effective coordination in works, he said.
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