Road network in Telangana doubles since State formation

Telangana's R&B Department currently maintains 32,445 km of roads, of which 27,461 km are State highways and 4,983 km are National Highways crossing the State

Hyderabad: Realising that infrastructure is a critical factor in economic development, the Telangana government has put a lot of effort into revitalising the roads in the State in the last eight years and today, the road connectivity has improved significantly in Telangana, with the double lane road network, which was 6,093 km in 2014 now increasing to 12,060 km.

Similarly, four-lane and above roads which extended up to 669 km in 2014, have now increased to 1,154km. Even the National Highway density rose to 4.45 km per 100 sq km in 2023 from 2.25 km per 100 sqkm in 2014, when the State was formed. The Department of Roads and Buildings (R&B) currently maintains 32,445 km of roads, of which 27,461 km are State highways and 4,983 km are National Highways crossing the State.

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According to Roads and Buildings officials, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao during his first review meeting of the departments had laid out a blueprint for the development of roads and based on it, development of roads were given the topmost priority. Following this, double-lane connectivity between mandal and district headquarters, capacity augmentation by widening district roads and State highways, construction of bridges and building ring roads and bypasses to major towns were areas on which works were taken up on priority by the State government, a senior R&B official said.

In the last eight and a half years, 8,179 km of two-lane roads, 321 km of 4-lane roads and 483 bridges have been completed, he added.

The R&B Department has taken up a novel idea of bridge and check dam construction wherever it was felt feasible and necessary, and this has resulted in storage of water upstream and increase in ground water. The construction of the bridge cum check dam has also resulted in cost reduction by 45-50 percent when compared to construction of the check dam alone, officials said.

Apart from vastly improving the road network in the State during the last eight years, the government has also focussed on creating building infrastructure. While the total building infrastructure in the State before 2014 was 30.43 lakh sq ft, it has substantially increased to 132.45 lakh sq ft at present. Of these, public buildings which were 11.73 lakh sq ft in 2014 have risen to 71.55 lakh sq ft now. Similarly residential buildings which were 18,70 lakh sq ft in 2014 have risen to 60.90 lakh sq ft at present.