Beyond the Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Telangana, the Rs 17,000 crore Regional Ring Road (RRR) project is on the right track. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has invited tenders from expert consultants to prepare a detailed project report for the northern half of the 340-km access-controlled expressway.

Though the last date for opening of technical bids was May 25, NHAI extended it till June 2 in view of the COVID-19 situation following the request of the bidders. The new expressway, which is said to be the country’s largest ring road connecting most districts of Telangana, is planned to be developed in two parts under the Bharatmala project phase of the government at an estimated cost of Rs 17,000 crore.

The Bharatmala project envisages the development of 26,000 km long economic corridors, which are expected to carry most of the freight on roads along the Golden Quadrilateral and the north-south and east-west corridors.

The Telangana government will bear 50 per cent of its land acquisition cost and has allocated Rs 750 crore for the project in the 2021-22 budget.

The semi-greenfield expressway is initially planned to be four lanes and later to be expanded to six lanes depending on future vehicular traffic. The northern part of the project is spread over 180 km and has an estimated cost of Rs 9,500 crore. It will connect the urban agglomerations of Sangareddy, Narasapur, Toopran, Gajwel, Yadadri, Pragnapur, Bhuvanagiri and Chautuppal.

The southern portion of the expressway spans 160 km and has an estimated cost of Rs 6,480 crore and will connect Chautuppal, Ibrahimpatnam, Kandukur, Amangal, Chevella, Shankarpally, and Sangareddy.

CM K Chandrashekhar Rao is personally monitoring the project. He said that RRR will provide better access to farmers to sell their products and also to government and private players to set up cold chains, agro-processing units, IT parks and new townships.

News Source: ConstructionWorld