Mangalagiri: Roads in Andhra Pradesh would ‘compete’ with those in the United States of America in the next two years, Union Minister for Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari declared on Saturday. He was addressing a meeting with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in the chair, after laying the foundation stone for 27 road development projects and dedicating two completed projects to the nation here.

The two major road projects which he dedicated to the country include the upgradation of Madanapalle-Pileru stretch of NH 71 into a modern four-lane corridor. This 56 km highway was built at a cost of Rs 1,994 crore The second major project was the upgradation of a 31 km stretch from Kurnool on NH 340C to Mandlem at a cost of Rs 858 crore.

These projects will link Andhra Pradesh more closely with Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

The Union Minister said identified four important things needed for the development of any country: water, power, transportation and communication. In his capacity as the head of the Ministry of Transportation, he assured the people of Andhra Pradesh that he would do his best to improve transportation across the state. Quoting former president of the USA John F Kennedy, he said that “roads were good in America not just because America was great, but America was great because roads were good.”

Stating that the cost of the logistics was important for the development of the country, Gadkari said that he was confident that the cost of the logistics would come down in the country to 9 per cent in near future.

The Union Minister highlighted the importance of ethanol -- made of molasses, bagasse and even paddy straw -- which would help bring down the cost of logistics. He appreciated Andhra Pradesh government’s focus on generating green hydrogen and green energy. He appealed to the Chief Minister to continue focus on green hydrogen and offered all possible help in that direction. He asserted that he was not a mere man of words, but man of action.

Gadkari announced that the Vijayawada-Hyderabad road would be developed into six-lane. He said that an expressway would be built between Hyderabad and Vijayawada to make it possible to cover the distance in two hours.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, addressing the gathering, thanked the Union Minister for his support for developing roads across the state. Under the guidance and leadership of Gadkari, everyday 37 km of road was being constructed across the country, the Chief Minister said. He was confident that the Union Minister would make it possible in future for building 50 km of road per day.

Earlier, Union Ministers K Ramamohan Naidu and Bhupatiraju Srinivas Varma and Deputy Chief minister Pawan Kalyan, Ministers, Satyakumar Yadav and BC Janardhana Reddy, and others also spoke.