Telangana’s request to upgrade 14 State roads to NH still pending

The proposals for upgrading some of the State roads to National Highways have been pending since 2015-16, with Centre ignoring them in the latest budget proposal for 2023-24 fiscal too

Hyderabad: A proposal for upgrading 1,656.6 km of inter-State and inter-district roads into national highways, sent to the Centre by the Telangana government, is still awaiting approval from the union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.

The proposals for some of these roads have been pending since 2015-16, with the Centre ignoring them in the latest budget proposal for the 2023-24 fiscal too.

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According to the Budget Estimate details released by the Centre, the Ministry has proposed Rs.6,612.44 crore in the 2023-24 budget for construction of roads and bridges in Telangana but in that proposal, the list of 14 roads recommended by the State for upgradation has not found place. According to Roads & Buildings officials, the State government was expecting the Centre to honour its request and issue orders converting the State Highways into National Highways, but once again the Centre has ignored the request.

The State government has been continuously communicating with the officials of the union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to convert the State roads into National Highways, but so far there has been no response to their requests, R& B officials said.

“If the proposal was accepted, Telangana would have benefited a lot as the road conversion to National Highways will improve connectivity and convenience for commuters, besides promoting tourism,” a senior official said.

The State government had sent proposals to the union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to consider a proposal to upgrade 14 high-priority roads connecting States, popular shrines and district headquarters. These included the Choutuppal (NH-65)-Amangal-Shadnagar-Sangareddy (NH-65) – 182 km, which is part of the Regional Ring Road and the Sarapaka (NH-30) – Eturunagaram (NH-163)- 93 km stretch, which have been pending since 2016.

Similarly, Karimnagar (Junction NH-563) – Sircilla-Kamareddy-Yellareddy-Pitlam (Junction NH-161) – 165 km stretch and Wanaparthy-Kothakota-Gadwala-Mantralayam (NH-167) stretch proposals have been pending since 2017.