Capital Amaravati Outer Ring Road, which was shelved into cold storage during the previous YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s regime, is going to be operational soon. NHAI officials have written letters to the Collectors of Krishna, NTR, Eluru, Guntur and Palnadu districts for land acquisition for this project which will be undertaken at a cost of Rs.25,000 crores.
Arrangements are being made to start land acquisition as soon as the center approves the project alignment and DPR. Officials say that ORR works can be started within a year. As tge final alignment has been finalised, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has focused on the preparation of DPR and land acquisition.
While its alignment was finalized in 2018 itself, YSRCP, which came to power in 2019, sidelined ORR. After Chandrababu Naidu took charge as Chief Minister again, he got the preliminary approval of this project from the center. Orders have been received from NHAI officials to take action regarding ORR.
Previously, a consulting firm called RV Associates had done the alignment design and DPR works for the 189-km ORR. Since 2019, the RV company has requested NHAI to withdraw from the project if the work has not progressed. Recently, NHAI officials have sent a proposal to Delhi to allow the RV company to continue with the Center agreeing to the construction of ORR and obtaining approval.
Now, NHAI will enter into a supplementary agreement with the RV company this week. Rs 17,761 crores as per the estimate of 2018 for the construction of ORR. It is estimated that the cost of 3404 hectares of land acquisition will be Rs.4198 crores. Recently, the construction cost of this project has increased to Rs.20,000 crores.
It is estimated that the construction of ORR will cost up to Rs. 25,000 crores, including land acquisition of about Rs. 5000 crores. At that time, the center had stipulated that the state should bear the burden of land acquisition, but now the central government has agreed to spend the entire amount including land acquisition.
