Make State, national highways pothole free: Chandrababu Naidu to officials

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to transform all the state and national highways as pothole free by the end of this month. He warned the officials of serious action, if any pothole is noticed on the roads.

Anantapur district stands in first place in making roads pothole free with 99.86 per cent and Srikakulam stands in last place with 86.62 per cent, he said.

Chief Minister said roads should be developed on priority basis depending on population and vehicle traffic and he instructed the officials to arrange CC cameras on highways to assess the traffic density.

Chandrababu Naidu asked the R&B officials to take possession of Krishna Bund Road connecting Vijayawada to Avanigadda to develop the road further to improve economy and tourism in the region.

Stating that the Diviseema is a beautiful place with backwaters, mangroves and Krishna river confluence point at Hamsaladeevi, Chandrababu Naidu said that officials should explore the opportunities to develop the area as an international tourist destination.

Special Chief Secretary Neerab Kumar Prasad gave a presentation on the progress of development of R&B roads. He said an action plan was prepared with an estimated expenditure of Rs 855 crore proposing to take up roads with traffic density.

Regarding state highways, a goal was set to widen 3,729 km length of single lane state highways, 789 km of intermediate and State highways and to reconstruct dilapidated bridges to ensure safe flow of traffic.

The total length of roads in the state include National highways-6,401 km, state highways-13,604 km, district roads-32.280 km and main district roads-26,849 km and 5,431 km rural roads making a total of 52,285 km. He said 913 km length of state highways were completed during 2014-18 including 19 bridges at a cost of Rs 1681 cr.

Reviewing the progress of widening of national highways, the Chief Minister conducted a tele conference with district collectors and directed them to complete the land acquisition in Anantapur, Kurnool, Prakasam and Guntur districts immediately. He also directed the district collectors to complete the land acquisition for Amaravati-Anantapur express highway.

The national highway officials said that the Kanaka Durga flyover will be completed by March 2019. Chief Minister asked the officials to beautify the flyover as iconic bridge with beautiful designing. Minister for Roads and Buildings Ch Ayyannapatrudu and other officials were present.