Telangana to have national highways of 5,303 km: CM Chandrasekhar Rao

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday said the state will have a network of national highways of total 5,303 km, once the existing projects are completed.

Beginning a short discussion on 'National Highways, Road and Buildings in the state', in the Legislative Assembly, Rao said the erstwhile governments had "neglected" the state when it was part of Andhra Pradesh, before division. "The Centre has sanctioned new national highways with combined length of 2,776 km to Telangana. The total highways that were constructed during the past 70 years (from 1947 to 2014), were only 2,527 km."

"During the past 2.5 years, the state has managed to get sanctions from the Centre for laying 2,776 km of 18 new highways. The total length of the national highways in the state would increase to 5,303 km," Rao said. Minister for Roads and Buildings T Nageswar Rao said Telangana had 24,250 km of roads at the time of formation of the state on June 2, 2014. He said the state government has decided to develop 12,000 km of roads, including 357 bridges with an expenditure outlay of Rs 13,380 crore.

+"The government has completed construction of 7,500 km long roads so far by spending Rs 4,000 crore," the minister told the Assembly. Meanwhile, Minister for Health, Medical and Family Welfare C Laxma Reddy said the government is mulling to start 'bike ambulances' in the state capital and remote tribal areas for the convenience of the people.