MoRTH launches Rs. 1,860-cr highway project

Adding to the country's road and highway network, the Union transport minister has recently laid the foundation stone for the four-laning of a 257-km stretch of National Highway near Kudligi bypass in the Andhra Pradesh at an investment worth Rs. 1,860cr. The present two-lane stretch from Hosapete linking NH 4 at Chitradurga has turned into a shabby state and accident-prone, said official sources, claiming that areas like the capital cities of newly formed Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states - Amarvati (Vijayawada) and Hyderabad would be linked with an express highway' and a bullet train' soon. To create a growth corridor between the two states, Telangana government has forwarded a proposal to Centre for upgrading National Highway-65 (formerly NH-9) connecting the two capital cities with an express highway and a high speed bullet train parallel to the highway. The proposal says the highway connecting Hyderabad and Vijayawada on the stretch of 270 km would be upgraded to eight lane road on par with the Mumbai and Pune Expressway. Currently, construction work on nearly 15 expressways projects stretching across areas like Bengaluru- Chennai and Shimla – Chandigarh is in full swing.