90-km road to be made four-lane in Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram: District administration is gearing up for land acquisition for road extension works. The proposed four-lane road between Vizag and Raipur in Chhattisgarh will pass through Vizianagaram district.

As per the preliminary estimates, about 615 hectares of land is required for the extension. The proposed road would cover 90 km of length in this district. Once the road is built, it will cover a total distance of 401 km. The road will pass through Visakhapatnam, Chinthalvalasa, Vizianagaram and Salur, Odisha's Koraput, Umarkot, Baheda and Dighli to Raipur via Likhma, Borai, Nagri and Kurud.

Of the total road length, 164 km falls in Chhattisgarh. Of this, 132 km will be developed as a two-lane road while the remaining 32 km as a single lane road. At present, the goods traffic between Visakhapatnam and Chhattisgarh via Odisha has increased significantly and hundreds of goods transport vehicles like lorries, container vehicles are continuously running from Vizag port and Gangavaram port to Chhattisgarh, and Koraput and Jaypore in Odisha. The present two-lane road is not enough to meet the traffic and the heavy vehicles are frequently involved in accidents and the entire traffic is being obstructed.

Hence, the Union government has decided to extend the road and discussed with all the stakeholders like Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. In Vizianagaram district, the road would pass through Kothavalasa, L Kota, Jami, Gantyada and Vizianagaram.

Bhogapuram International Airport is coming up in Vizianagaram district which is a neighbouring district to Visakhapatnam where the government proposed to set up the executive capital.

So, Vizianagaram would see heavy traffic in future and the district administration was instructed by the State government to acquire the required land to undertake the road works soon, M Hari Jawaharlal, the Collector said.

"We have discussed with the highway authorities on the project. We have assigned the work of acquiring land to some revenue officers and told them to coordinate with other departments. The road would be a boon for our district," he said.