MoRTH steers clears Rs.50,000 cr road projects

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)

The Central government has increased the road building length from 6,707 km to 13,565 km in the last three-and-a-half years and projects involving Rs.40,000 crore are currently under implementation in Karnataka and has also decided to allocate Rs.50,000 crore for new road projects connecting Karnataka with Telangana. The upcoming projects included Bengaluru-Hyderabad Express Highway and Bengaluru-Amaravati Highway, resulting in boosted economic development across these states. This was stated by Transport minister while laying the foundation stone for five National Highway improvement works covering 177 km and entailing an investment of Rs.1,500 crore. He also dedicated 145 kms of the four-lane National Highway stretch that connected north Karnataka with Telangana at an investment of Rs.1544.18 crore. The mega Polavaram irrigation project on the Godavari would be completed next year and the proposed Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery linking around 3,000 tmc of water from the Godavari that would flow into the sea during the monsoon could be utilized. The plan is to link the rivers so as to facilitate the diversion of flood waters from the Godavari to Krishna to Pennar and to Cauvery. Initially, about 300 tmc of water would be diverted from the Godavari to the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh through the Nagarjuna Sagar dam and then to the Krishna and further, the water would be diverted to the Somasila dam on the Pennar, and thereon, to the Grand Anicut dam on the Cauvery.