All future road projects will be taken up under PPP: Muniyappa

Kakinada, AP, Nov 21 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways K H Muniyappa today said the Centre had decided that all the future road projects under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) would be taken up primarily on the public-private partnership(PPP) pattern.

Addressing a function after laying the foundation stone for the construction of approaches to the road over bridge on Kattipudi - Pamarru National Highway - 214 at Pithapuram town, 30km from here, he said the government intends to increase participation of PPP in a significant manner.

The Minister said the Golden Quadrilateral, covering entire 1016-km of NH-5 from Tada to Ichapuram in Andhra Pradesh, which had been upgraded to four-lane facility, was now proposed for further upgradation to six-lane under NHDP's phase five.

He said contract for the six-laning from Chialakaluripet to Vijayawada had been already awarded contract and the proposals for six-laning from Nellore to Chilakaluripet and Vijayawada to Rajahmundry had been submitted for approval to Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC).

On Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju's request for widening the existing Kattipudi-Kakinada stretch of National Highway 214, Mr Muniyappa said this part of the road was already identified for improvement to two-lane paved shoulders with provision of capacity augmentation to four-lanes at a later date on BOT basis.

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