₹3 lakh crore for National Highways in Telangana between 2014-2024

HYDERABAD

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari made a promise to spend ₹3 lakh crore on development of National Highways infrastructure of highest standards in the Telangana State in the 10-year period between 2014 and 2024.

Speaking after foundation laying and dedication ceremony of 12 national highway projects of total 354 kilometre length, with an investment of ₹7853 crore here on Friday, Mr. Gadkari said, out of the 33 districts in Telangana, 32 are within the network of National Highways, with the exception of Peddapalli. Soon the sole district too will be brought into the network, he promised.

For the past eight years, the national highway network has been extended almost 100 per cent in Telangana, reaching 4,996 kilometres from 2511 kilometres in 2014. More connectivity will be developed in the coming days, he said.

Of the 26 Greenfield Express Highways being developed nationwide, five will pass through Hyderabad, namely Indore-Hyderabad, Surat-Solapur-Kurnool-Chennai, Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam, Nagpur-Vijayawada, and Hyderabad-Raipur, at a total cost of ₹70,000 crore, he said.

The traffic arriving into southern India from states such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand would first reach Mumbai, from there to Pune, and from there would arrive via either Solapur or Kolhapur.

Now, thanks to the Delhi-Mumbai highway, for which most of the work has been completed, the time to travel between Delhi and Mumbai has been reduced to 12 hours, which will be beneficial in terms of logistics.

The Surat-Chennai network will reduce the distance by 250 kilometres for cities such as Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kochi, Bengaluru, Mangalore, and Chennai. The Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam highway will halve the travel time, Mr. Gadkari explained.