Hyderabad: In a major development, the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) on Friday accorded in-principle approval for the Regional Ring Road (RRR) which will connect Hyderabad with surrounding districts.
The 360-km RRR will run past Sangareddy, Gajwel, Choutuppal, Mal, Kadthal, Shadnagar, Chevella and Kandi and will connect major national highways. It will be constructed with expressway norms and have four to six lanes.
The estimated cost of the project is Rs 12,000 crore, with about Rs 3,000 crore going for land acquisition. The state government has proposed to pay for 50 per cent of the land acquisition cost.
The decision came after Telangana MPs met Union minister Nitin Gadkari and explained the importance of the project. TRS MP K. Kavitha, broke the news on her Twitter handle, terming the project as Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s brainchild.
“Brainchild of KCR Garu, ‘Regional Ring Road’ connecting the surrounding districts to Hyderabad city will soon be a reality. TRS MPs have been working with NHAI & facilitating with TS authorities for speedy sanction of this work,” Ms Kavitha tweeted (sic).
According to officials from the roads and buildings department, the RRR will be better than the Mumbai-Pune and Ahmedabad-Vadodara expressways. The RRR junctions with the Vijayawada, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Nagpur highways will have amenities such as parking, food courts, rest rooms, parks, children’s play area, shopping malls, drinking water, toilets, provided on an area of 300 to 500 acres each.
It is still not clear whether the project will be constructed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) or the R&B department. Speaking to this newspaper, R&B engineer-in-chief Ganapathi Reddy said the department would expedite land acquisition for the project. He said the R&B department would immediately embark on a survey to obtain land details.
Asked who would execute the project, Mr Reddy said clarity would be available soon. Mr Reddy said the execution and infrastructure cost has been estimated at Rs 9,000 crore. “Since the project was upgraded to expressway from four lane, the price has been escalated from Rs 5,500 to Rs 12,000 crore. The expressway will be developed on par with global standards and will be the best in the country,” he said.
While reviewing the RRR project in August, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had said, “The city is developing by leaps and bounds because of its affordability and ideal climatic conditions with people here living harmoniously. With this being the case, there will be an increase of commuters from different regions to the city which makes the existing Outer Ring Road insufficient for floating traffic in the days and years to come.”
