The national highway Raipur-Vishakhapatnam stretch with a length of 359-km has been identified to be developed under Bharatmala project, the Central government has said that NHAI has awarded the work of preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) from Kurud to Andhra Pradesh / Odisha Border commanding aforesaid length. The work of DPR preparation commenced last month and in this connection Chhattisgarh had already been inviting private investors to set up manufacturing clusters in five sea ports within its 600 km reach from the State. With five ports Paradip and Dhamra in Odisha, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Machillipatnam in Andhra Pradesh as the opportunity of setting up of manufacturing clusters in Chhattisgarh is immense. It is worth mentioning that the Bharatmala Pariyojana comprises of about 65,000 km of Highways / Roads out of the total length of 24,800 km highways along with 10,000 km residual NHDP stretches that are to be constructed under Phase-I of Bharatmala Project over a period of 5 years 2017-22, said official sources.
