Union Minister of State for Tourism G. Kishan Reddy has urged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to ensure that the State government deposited before March-end 50 per cent of its share for acquiring land for the Regional Ring Road with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
In a letter to Mr. Rao, the Minister reminded Mr. Rao that a gazette notification already published by the Centre to take up the project forward would go waste if the money was not deposited by March-end. The cancellation of the notification for want of State’s response would unnecessarily delay the commencement of the project.
He recalled in this context that the State and Central governments had agreed to fund land acquisition on 50-50 basis while the Centre will bear the entire construction cost of the prestigious project.
As per the agreement, the Centre had sanctioned the project under its Bharatmala Pariyojana programme with the aim to construct a Greenfield Express Way as the regional ring road all round Hyderabad. The Centre had also put in place an action plan to go ahead with the project by issuing a gazette notification.
The regional authority of NHAI had written five letters in the past to the secretary of roads and buildings department of Telangana to deposit the 50 per cent share with the NHAI to take the project forward. In the correspondence between them back and forth, several doubts of the State government were also clarified, Mr. Reddy said.
However, the State government did not deposit the money though it made an allocation of ₹ 500 crore for the purpose in its budget this year.
The Minister also said the project was conceived to be iconic for Hyderabad with a road length of 360 km and estimated to cost ₹26,000 crore. The road will greatly reduce the load of vehicles coming and going from Hyderabad to other places. It will also enhance the socio-economic conditions of people of the State. Poor and middle class people living in places around Hyderabad will get employment opportunities with the coming up of houses, townships, industrial parks, IT companies, tourism spots, entertainment parks and malls.
Mr. Reddy added that the next step to survey land for acquisition ahead of publication of 3D gazette notification was also completed.