Kishan writes to CM on NHAI land acquisition, RRR funds

Hyderabad: Union Minister G Kishan Reddy has urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to take steps to hand over the pending 4,048 hectares of land for construction of the National Highways in the State to NHAI. He also requested Reddy to release the government's share of 50 per cent funds for land acquisition for development of the proposed Regional Ring Road around Hyderabad.

Reddy wrote separate letters to the CM on January 20 on the wo issues which he said have been pending for long. The letters were released to the media on Wednesday.

In his letter on transfer of lands to the NHAI, he said 2,500 km-long National Highway projects were in different stages of implementation in the State. They include 751 km 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. 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 to the then Chief Minister (K Chandrashekar Rao) on March 15, 2023, there was no adequate cooperation from the government, Reddy alleged. On releasing 50 per cent share of funds (estimated to be about Rs 2,585 crore), the minister claimed there was no satisfactory response from the 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 km Regional Ring Road, the agreement between the Centre and the State government is to share the cost of land acquisition on a 50:50 basis, Reddy said in the letter.