AP govt sanctions Rs 2,205cr for new roads
Speed up work on beach corridor, Jagan tells officials
Vijayawada: New roads worth Rs 2,205 crore has been sanctioned for laying and maintenance of roads in a year in Andhra Pradesh.
At a review meeting of R&B works at Tadepalli near here on Monday, Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy said for the first time, such a huge amount has been allotted for laying of new roads and their maintenance.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to expedite work on the beach corridor project connecting Visakhapatnam to the Bhogapuram International Airport.
He said the negligence of the previous TDP Government in maintenance of roads and 'heavy rains in the past two years are responsible for the condition of roads across the state and added that a malicious propaganda is being spread that all the roads were damaged in the present government.
The officials told the Chief Minister that construction and repair of roads will be completed by the end of May and added that 33 road over bridges (ROBs) have been pending for a long time.
The Chief Minister said distorted news that those ROBs were pending in the current government is being spread and clarified that YSRCP Government has been spending Rs 571.3 crore to complete these works. The officials told the Chief Minister that tenders for 83 per cent of the road works are completed and 100 per cent tenders will be completed by the end of February.
The officials briefed the Chief Minister on the steps being taken for construction of the beach corridor road from Visakhapatnam port to Bhimili-Bhogapuram. Reddy instructed the officials to focus on road designs and said that the beach corridor should be the best in the world and added that it should decrease travel time between Visakhapatnam and Bhogapuram Airport. He said the beach corridor project needs to be given highest priority as tourism projects will come up near the beach corridor road and as there are many restrictions on civil flights in the current airport and even night landing of flights is getting difficult due to Navy restrictions.
R&B Minister M Shankar Narayana, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Revenue Special Chief Secretary Rajat Bhargava, Transport Principal Secretary MT Krishna Babu, Transport Commissioner P Sitaramanjaneyulu and other senior officials were present.
