Telangana makes giant strides in road network, building construction

Hyderabad: Strengthening of road network and construction of giant buildings like new Secretariat, integrated district office complexes taken up by the State government has brought a major shift in the State's infrastructure development in the last eight years.

The government has taken up four major programmes - providing double lane connectivity between the mandal headquarters to district headquarters, capacity augmentation by way of widening to two lanes of some major district roads/State highways, construction of bridges and formation of ring roads /by-passes to major towns.

Status of road network at the time of formation Telangana was below the national average. Of the total road length of 24,245 km only 28 per cent of the road length i.e. 6,761 km of State R&B roads of State was double/four –lane/multi lane. The quality of roads was also not up to standards.

Considering the fact that a better road network is key to economic progress, the government focused on better road connectivity both in national highways as well as State roads. The national highway density which was 2.25 km/100 sqkm in 2014 has now increased to 4.45 km/100 sq km in 2023.

When it comes to the status of road network in the State during the last eight and half years, double lane, which was 6,093 km as on June 2, 2014, has increased to 12,060 km. Similarly, four-lane and above which were only 669 km in 2014 has increased to 1,154 km.

The department has taken up a novel idea of bridge-cum-check dam construction wherever it was felt feasible and necessary. This has resulted in storage of water upstream and increase in groundwater. The construction cost of the bridge-cum-check dams has been reduced to 45 -50 per cent when compared to construction of checkdams. Of the 184 bridges-cum-check dams taken up, 141 have been completed.

Apart from improving the road network in the State during the last eight and half years, the government has also focused on creating building infrastructure. While the total building infrastructure in the State before 2014 was 30.43 lakh sft, it has substantially increased to 132.45 lakh sft. Of these, public buildings, which was 11.73 lakh sft in 2014, rose to 71.55 lakh sft Similarly residential buildings which were 18,70 lakh sft in 2014 rose to 60.90 lakh sft.

The major building projects taken up in the State - BR Ambedkar State Secretariat, Telangana Martyrs Memorial, 125-foot tall Ambedkar statue , Integrated district offices complexes, residential complexes for district officials in office complexes, Integrated command control centre, MLA camp offices helped the State to emerge as a favourite destination for all in the country and also across the world.