Adilabad: The recently sanctioned 64.2km Greenfield Express Highway (four lanes) under the central government’s Bharathmala Pariyojana scheme is set between Gadchiroli of Maharashtra and Komaram Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial districts.
The works would be taken up at a cost of Rs 10,578 crore. This is likely to also check the Maoist activities while boosting the economic activities in the backward areas of Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts.
The new road would pass through 42 villages in eight mandals across two districts.
The aerial survey for the project was held three days ago in the border areas for identifying the land required for the road. The road will connect the Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli areas.
Officials said the greenfield road will start at Annaram village in Tandur mandal of Mancherial district and end at the Kirimiri village of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. There already was a national highway connecting Gadchiroli and Nagpur, at Kirimiri, and the new highway will give connectivity to the existing road. Already, a parallel road was laid along the Wardha river from Chandrapur to Gadchiroli.
Maoists are carrying out their activities in Gadchiroli district and the bordering areas of Chhattisgarh. Both these segments are connected to the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district and Mancherial district. Both road connectivity and transportation will improve between Gadchiroli and Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad district once the new NH is ready for traffic.
Road connectivity has improved to a substantial extent under various state and central government schemes like the Pradhan Matri Gram Sadak Yojana, the Backward Regions Grant Funds (BRGF) and the World Bank funds in the rural and tribal areas, especially the Maoist-affected areas, in the last 10 years.
Officials noted that the central government was giving funds to improve road connectivity in the Maoist-affected area under BRGF in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Road connectivity is likely to improve further in the Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas with the sanction of Rs 150 crore by the central government for the construction of high-level bridges and laying of new roads in the interior villages along the forest areas in the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
“These funds are sanctioned as a special package under the LWE affected areas scheme to tackle the problem in a holistic manner,” officials explained.
The central government had sanctioned nearly Rs 500 crore to improve road connectivity in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas in old Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts of the state in 2020.
High-level bridges and BT road were laid with the funds in such areas in the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
BJP senior leader of Sirpur (T) Palvai Harish said the new green field express highway coming up in the constituency would improve the road connectivity in the backward areas, also trade, and create employment opportunities in the Naxal-affected area.
He said a team of BJP leaders led by him presented a proposal for laying the NH from Podasa of Maharashtra and Venkatraopet of Telangana from Kagaznagar X road and submitted a memorandum to the Union roads and highways minister Nitin Gadkari a few months ago.
Harish said the proposed route map was not accepted on the ground that it was passing through the reserve forest at Peddabanda and Vempalli. Hence, the direction was changed towards the right and clearance given by the Centre to the road proposal.
He said the new NH will skirt the tiger corridor and buffer zone of Kawal Tiger Reserve in Penchikalpet, Karjelli and Sulugupalli. “The new NH will pass through the rural hinterland and a fresh road will be laid without connecting the existing roads,” he added.
Two bridges will come up as per the road layout — one on the Peddavagu river between Dahegam and Kagaznagar and the other on the Wardha river at Sandgam and Kirimeri of Gadchiroli district.
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