Road designs to be modified

Visakhapatnam: The district administration is correcting the road designs as many people are submitting petitions for connecting, approach roads and bridges between the proposed six-lane national highway road from Anakapalle to Anandapuram.

Though the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) constructed a four-lane national highway from Tada to Itchapuram in the state, a 50.78-km long road from Anakapalle to Anandapuram was not taken up for the past two decades. Because of the narrow and busiest road, many accidents occurred on the road.

However, the BJP government sanctioned the funds for the long-pending road work and also issued the clearances to the road. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,527 crore for the proposed six-lane road between Anakapalle and Anandapuram connecting the existing highway.

The district administration had already identified the land slots for acquisition and also started works. In order to complete the project at earliest, the administration started the compensation to the displaced. However, in the first phase of the six-lane road design, the engineers not included several approach, link roads and bridges connecting the villages to the highway.

The residents of the villages met Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao and urged to include the connectivity roads and bridges at major junctions in the designs. The minister also agreed with the need of the connecting roads and bridges and assured the locals to incorporate in the main project. Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao questioned the officials why they neglected the connectivity roads and bridges before finalising the designs.

Terming various junctions, the minister said that the Maharajapeta T-Junction is a very key point in Revidi-Padmanabham which is also connecting 21 gram panchayats. The minister directed the officials to prepare plans to construct a bridge at the major junction. He also directed the revenue officials to pay the compensation to the displaced without delay.