Proposed
Highway to link three states, diminish the distance by nearly 200km
Dr
Raman Singh chairs review meeting PWD
Raipur,
22 May 2017
Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Dr Raman Singh has given
consent-in-principle to Chief Minister Mr. N Chandrababu Naidu's proposal of
linking capital city Raipur with Vishakhapatnam through a new road route. Mr.
Naidu has proposed for declaring this road a national highway.
In
the review meet of PWD held at his residence office, Dr Singh had detailed
discussion on this proposal. Department officials informed in the meeting that
Andhra Pradesh Government has proposed for declaring the road from Raipur to
Vijaynagram-Vishakhapatnam as National Highway, and to shorten the distance,
route from Kurud to Nagri (Sihava) area of Chhattisgarh and route from
Navrangpur of Odisha state to Vishakhapatnam has been marked. Dr Raman Singh
was glad to know that this newly proposed National Highway will link three
states- Chhattisgarh-Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
It
is noteworthy that presently, distance between Raipur to Vishakhapatnam via
Jagdalpur (Bastar) is nearly 600km. The newly marked and proposed route will
shorten this distance by 200 km. In the meeting, it was informed that Chief
Minister of Andhra Pradesh had sent a proposal in the context to Union Minister
of Road Transport and Highway Mr. Nitin Gadkari in February 2017. He had also
requested Chhattisgarh Government to deliberate on the proposal. This road will
be built via Vishakhapatnam, Chinthalvalasa, Vijaynagar, Saloor, Odisha's
Koraput, Umarkot, Baheda, Dighli to capital city of Chhattisgarh- Raipur via
Kurud. This road will cover total distance of 401km. It has been proposed that
this route from Raipur to Kurud, Dighli, Nagri, Borai to Likhma should be
declared as National Highway. The proposed route of 132 km in Chhattisgarh will
be of two-lane and remaining 32 km will be single lane. Presently, there is
54-km long national highway from Raipur to Kurud. Now Chhattisgarh has to give
consent on declaring 110-km route as national highway.
Chief
Minister said to the officials in this meeting that part of proposed route
passes through forest land also. Hence, the formalities relate to forest
clearance etc should be completed soon as per the rules so that the work may
proceed. It was informed in the meeting that in the current fiscal year
2017-18, PWD's annual action plan of Rs 2500 crore has been granted. This
includes four flyovers between Raipur-Durg as well. Chief Minister reviewed
progress of bypass road construction in various cities of Chhattisgarh
including the construction of four-lane between Raipur-Bilaspur. PWD has set
the target of completing construction of 28 roads of 1526 kms by March 2018, at
the cost of Rs 12 thousand 266 crores. This includes six roads of National
Highway Development Authority and four roads of LWE-affected areas.
In
the meeting, PWD Minister Mr. Rajesh Moonat, Chief Secretary Mr. Vivek Dhand,
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Aman Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary
to Finance Department Mr. Amitabh Jain, Secretary PWD Department Mr. Subodh
Kumar Singh, Managing Director of Chhattisgarh Road Development Corporation Mr.
Anil Rai, Chief Engineer of PWD Mr. DK Pradhan and other senior officials
concerned were also present.
number-847/Swarajya/Sana
&&0&&
