Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region, G. Kishan Reddy, on Wednesday urged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to personally intervene and look into the delayed land acquisition and funds disbursal for the proposed Regional Ring Road (RRR) and also for the pending National Highways works in Telangana.
In two separate official letters to the Chief Ministers, copies of which were released to the media here, Mr. Kishan Reddy explained that the ₹26,000 crore 350 km Regional Ring Road (RRR) will be totally funded by the Centre and also bear the 50% of the land acquisition cost while the State government is to fund 50% of the remaining cost.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been seeking immediate release of about ₹2,855 crore to be deposited into their account to commence the works on the north part of the RRR. Several letters have been written from the central NHAI office and also to local office about the payment but nothing has been done till date, he maintained.
The Minister said any further delay in depositing the money will only result in cost escalation and the project timelines getting extended. It would not only compound the traffic movement in and out of the twin cities but will have an adverse effect on the districts infrastructure development. Mr. Reddy stated that he had written to the previous Chief Minister on Feb. 3, 2023 about this issue but had received no reply.
In another letter, the Union Minister also brought to the notice of the Chief Minister about the long pending land acquisition for the proposed new national highways across the State. He pointed out that the NH length had increased from 2,500 km in 2014 to double the length at a cost of about one lakh crore rupees, thanks to the initiative shown by the Narendra Modi government in the last 9.5 years.
About 2,500 km more NH is to be built, out of which about 751 km costing ₹32,383 crore for 11 projects are in various stages of approval, including bidding or handing over works. About 4,332 hectares of land is required – this includes land for the proposed RRR north part, for these works to begin.
So far, 284 hectares only was handed over to the NHAI with another 4,048 hectares still to be given by the government. More NH roads will only help Telangana as the recently built NH stretches across the State had a tremendous impact on the socio-economic development of the areas concerned, in reducing accidents and efficient traffic management, he said.
Mr. Reddy said he had written a letter to the then CM on March 15, 2023 seeking speedy land acquisition but the required assistance from the government was not forthcoming. Therefore, he urged Mr. Revanth Reddy to ensure the land acquisition is expedited at the earliest.
