Visakhapatnam: Another national highway will pass through nearly 200 km of Alluri Sitarama Raju district after the Centre approved the proposed project route. The new national highway will start from Kharagpur in West Bengal and terminate at Amaravati (Vijayawada), covering a total distance of 1,107 km.Of the total stretch, around 457 km will pass through Andhra Pradesh, including nearly 200 km in Alluri Sitarama Raju district alone. The highway will also pass through Parvathipuram Manyam, Polavaram, East Godavari and Eluru districts. The new highway is expected to provide a faster alternative to the heavily congested Kolkata-Chennai National Highway (NH-16) and improve travel and freight connectivity across remote tribal and agency areas.
The estimated cost of the project in the Andhra Pradesh portion is around Rs 32,000 crore, while the total estimated project cost is more than Rs 72,000 crore. Directions for acquiring the required land have been issued to the district administration, and the concerned authorities are preparing the land acquisition proposals.It may be recalled that works on the Rs 1,600-crore NH-516E, connecting Vizianagaram with Rajahmundry via Araku, Paderu, Chintapalli and Koyyuru, have been progressing. The new greenfield highway from Kharagpur will pass through Araku, Dumbriguda, Hukumpeta, Paderu, G Madugula, Chintapalli, GK Veedhi and Koyyuru mandals.Land acquisition for the new highway will cover more than 128 villages. The proposed high-speed corridor will run parallel to NH-516E at some locations. Work on NH-516E began around five years ago, and more than 60% of the work has been completed so far.
Land acquisition will also cover reserve forest areas in Kuridi and Muliyagalugu in Araku mandal, besides Anjoda, Araku, Kinchumanda, Kosangi and other areas in Dumbriguda mandal. Apart from Hukumpeta and Paderu mandals, around 70 villages in G Madugula mandal, 10 villages in Chintapalli mandal and seven villages in GK Veedhi mandal will come under the land acquisition area.Several villages in Koyyuru mandal, including Garimanda, Vantamarri, Annavaram and Mukudupalli, which were once strongly influenced by Maoist activities, will also be covered by the acquisition process. The highway will eventually connect directly to Amaravati Outer Ring Road near Agiripalli.
