The Chief Minister breathed new life into stalled infrastructure projects

Anantapur-Puttaparthi: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu immediately revived the dead proposals related to all road projects related to Amaravati, including the ORR project, Hyderabad-Amaravati Expressway and Anantapur-Amaravati Expressway, now renamed as Bengaluru-Vijayawada Expressway with slight modifications, as soon as he returned to power. During his recent meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Delhi, he revived all the dead proposals and got them approved, which led to immediate implementation of the projects. The 383 km long expressway project will reduce the distance between Anantapur and Amaravati by 100 km and travel time by 5 hours. The officials will now revisit the project on the modifications made by the previous YSRCP government and restore the original sanctity of the infrastructure project related to Amaravati development. The amendments made by the YSRCP government include the extension of the expressway touching the YSR district and restricting the expressway to Chilakaluripeta, thereby deliberately isolating Amaravati from the mainstream expressway. Hence these anomalies will be corrected. The expressway was also built on a wider basis, connecting it to Bengaluru and then the Chennai-Kolkata Express Highway, to accelerate socio-economic development in the entire region and make Amaravati the most visited place. The overall idea is to connect Hyderabad-Bengaluru-Chennai-Amaravati and Kolkata, making it the largest quadrilateral expressway. The officials will also review the land acquisition scenario done earlier by a committee of collectors of Anantapur, Kurnool and YSR districts. Sources in the R&B Executive Engineer’s Office told The Hans India that under the earlier plan, 1,017 hectares of land in Anantapur, 1,713 hectares in Kurnool and 1,108 hectares in YSR district were in the process of being acquired. A total of 8,692 hectares of land is required for the project. The new government will decide on the project and take it forward, as it is a prestigious project linked to the development of Rayalaseema districts. The express highway is expected to boost trade and industrial development in the Rayalaseema districts. The state government has already ordered a route survey to reduce travel time and ensure hassle-free travel on the expressway to the capital region. The total length of the proposed express highway from Anantapur to Amaravati is 371.030 km, Kurnool feeder connectivity is 123.7 km and Kadapa feeder connectivity is 104.05 km. The four-lane road length is 178 km in the total 598.78 km long expressway. Similarly, the length of the six-lane road between Anantapur and Amaravati is 193.030 km. The express highway is designed for a speed of 120 kmph, avoiding settlements and places of archaeological and religious importance in a straight line. Construction of tunnels and bridges is proposed to deal with hilly terrain and valley sections.