Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has informed on Thursday that widening of the existing 2-lane road stretch of NH-163 between Hyderabad and Bhopalpattnam in Chhattisgarh to 4-lane with paved shoulders has been approved with an estimated cost of ₹136.22 crore.
The road stretch connects major tourist places such as Laknavaram Lake and Bogatha waterfalls in Mulugu district of Telangana. Mr. Gadkari stated on a social media platform that development of the road stretch would improve the inter-state connectivity between Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Stating that Mulugu is a Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected district, he said the development of the stretch would help the government to have better control over LWE activities.
Further, rehabilitation and upgradation of the 2-lane NH-167K stretch of Hyderabad/Kalwakurthy-Nandyal/Tirupati/Chennai highway to 4-lane with paved shoulders including the approaches of iconic suspension bridge across the river Krishna between Nagarkurnool (Telangana) and Nandyal (Andhra Pradesh) has been approved with a cost of ₹436.91 crore in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.
Mr. Gadkari explained that NH-167K would reduce the distance between Hyderabad/Kalwakurthy and Nandyal/Tirupati/Chennai by about 80 km as a section of the vehicular traffic using NH-44 now would take to NH-167K after its completion. He said Nandyal is an important trade centre for agricultural and forest products as it is abutting the Nallamala forest range.
The sanctioned iconic bridge at Kollapur (Somasila) would be the gateway for both the Telugu States and would help promote tourism, Mr. Gadkari added.
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