Telangana: Govt pushes for massive increase in road network

Hyderabad: The State government has embarked on a massive programme on augmenting the road network in Telangana ever since the formation of the State.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during his first ever the department review meeting had laid out a blueprint for the development of roads. Four major programmes have been taken up as per his directions.

They are providing double lane connectivity between mandal headquarters to district headquarters, capacity augmentation by way of widening to two lanes of some major district roads/state highways and construction of bridges and formation of ring roads /bye passes to major towns.

According to officials, the status of road network at the time of State formation was below the national average. Of the total road length of 24,245 kilometres, only 28 percent of the road length i.e. 6,761 kilometres of roads were double/four-lane/multi lanes. The quality of roads was also not up to standards.

Considering the fact that a better road network is key to economic progress, the BRS government has focussed on better road connectivity both in national highways as well as State roads.

The National highway density which was 2.25km/100 sqkm in 2014 has now increased to 4.45 km/100 sq km in 2023.

During the last eight and half years, the double lane which was 6,093 km as on June 2, 2014 has been increased to 12,060 kms. Similarly, four lanes and above which were only 669 kms in 2014 have been increased to 1154 kms.

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 an increase in ground water.

The construction cost of the bridge cum check dam will be reduced to 45 -50 percent when compared to construction of the check dam stand alone. Of the 184 bridge cum check dams taken up, 141 check dams have been completed.

The efforts of the State government in augmenting the road network has borne fruit. During the last 8 and half years, a total of 8,179 kilometres of two lane roads, 321 kilometres of four lane roads and 483 bridges have been completed. 410 new posts have been created after the recent reorganisation of the department. With this, the strength of the department has increased to 3,371 staff in various categories.

Apart from vastly improving the road network in Telangana, the government has also focussed on creating building infrastructure in the State. While the total building infrastructure in Telangana before 2014 was 30.43 lakh sft, it has substantially increased to 132.45 lakh sft at present. Of these, public buildings which were 11.73 lakh sft in 2014, have been increased to 71.55 lakh sft now. Similarly, the residential buildings which were 18,70 lakh sft in 2014 have gone up to 60.90 lakh sft.

According to officials, the department is executing major building projects, including 125 feet tall BR Ambedkar statue, Secretariat, Martyrs Memorial, integrated district offices complexes, residential complexes for the district officials in office complexes, Integrated command Control Centre at MLA camp offices etc.