Centre clears ₹820 cr for road & bridge project across Krishna River

To provide smooth and hassle-free road connectivity to riverbank villages in Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts, the Union transport ministry has planned to build a new road along with a bridge on the Krishna River connecting the two districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The 122-km-long road will have a 3-km long bridge over river Krishna and the entire project involves an investment of ₹820 crore under the Bharatmala phase-I. However, irrigation experts opined that instead of construction of a mere bridge, the Centre should take it up as bridge-cum-barrage which would help reduce flood pressure on the Srisailam project as well as provide drinking and irrigation water to many villages in AP and Telangana. The barrage would also help reduce the formation of silt in Srisailam reservoir in the long run and urged the state government in AP to suggest to the Centre to change the design of road-cum-bridge to road-cum-bridge-cum-barrage.