Union Minister G Kishan Reddy has urged Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to take steps to hand over the pending 4,048 hectares of land for construction of National Highways in the state to NHAI.
The minister has also requested the chief minister to release the state government's share of 50 per cent funds towards land acquisition for the development of the proposed Regional Ring Road here.
Kishan Reddy wrote separate letters to the chief minister on January 20 on the two issues which he said have been pending for a long. The letters were released to the media on Wednesday.
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In his letter on the transfer of lands to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), he said 2,500 kms-long National Highway projects were in different stages of implementation in the state.
They include 751 kms-long 11 projects which are in different stages (sanctioned/bidding stage/ready for sanction).
According to the letter, 4,332 hectares of land is required for the 11 projects. Out of that, only 284 hectares was transferred so far, while 4,048 hectares is yet to be handed over to the NHAI.
Though he had written a letter to the then chief minister (K Chandrasekhar Rao) on March 15, 2023, there was no adequate cooperation from the state government, Kishan Reddy alleged.
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On releasing 50 per cent share of funds (estimated to be about Rs 2,585 crores), the union minister claimed that was no satisfactory response from the state government despite reminders from the Centre. It would only lead to a delay in land acquisition which would impact the road construction, he said.
While the Centre would fully bear the estimated expenditure of Rs 26,000 crore for the construction of 350 kms-long Regional Ring Road around Hyderabad, the agreement between the Centre and state government is to share the cost of land acquisition on a 50:50 basis, Kishan Reddy said in the letter.
