Andhra four-lane corridor receives cabinet approval

NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved a road corridor in Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 3,653.10 crore and two additional railway lines in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to be built with an investment of Rs 3,399 crore, signalling a major push for infrastructure creation in the country.

The 108.134 km, four-lane Badvel-Nellore Corridor on national highway (NH) 67 will be built on design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) mode. It will provide connectivity to important nodes in the three industrial corridors of Andhra Pradesh-Kopparthy node on the Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, Orvakal node on Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor and Krishnapatnam node on Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor-and will have a positive impact on India's Logistics Performance Index, said a government statement.

The proposed corridor will reduce the travel distance to Krishnapatnam port by 33.9 km to 108.13 km from 142 km as compared to the existing Badvel-Nellore road. It will reduce the travel time by one hour and ensure that substantial gain is achieved in terms of reduced fuel consumption, thereby reducing carbon footprint and vehicle operating cost.

The project will generate about 2 million man-days of direct employment and 2.3 million man-days of indirect employment, besides inducing additional employment opportunities due to increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed corridor.

Railway projects
To enhance line capacity, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also approved two multitracking projects of the Indian Railways to ensure seamless and faster transportation of both passengers and goods.

These are the 3rd and 4th line on the Ratlam-Nagda route and the 4th line on Wardha-Balharshah route. These projects, covering four districts in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, will increase the existing Railways network by about 176 km and will be completed by 2029-30.

Responding to queries from ET on the incremental cargo and passenger handling capacity because of these projects, Union railwaysminister Ashwini Vaishnaw said it would lead to 18.40 million tonnes per annum of additional freight traffic. "Bottlenecks on the Ratlam-Nagda and Wardha-Balharshah routes will be eased, resulting in more passenger movement as well since track availability will increase," Vaishnaw said.