In a major move to end traffic congestion inVijayawada, the has prevailed upon the Centre to grant a newbypass roadto the existing national highway passing through the city.
The new bypass will connectNH-16in Krishna and Guntur districts with a new river overbridge. The bypass will be coming up almost 40 kilometres away on the eastern side of Vijayawada. The Centre has given the green signal to the project following a special request made by chief minister Y SJagan Mohan Reddy. The Centre has also agreed to share about 50 per cent of the cost of acquisition of land required for the project. The 78-km-long new bypass highway is expected to cost around Rs 600 to Rs 800 crore including the cost ofland acquisition.
This is the second bypass for Vijayawada as works on the Gundugolanu (Krishna district)-Chinakakani (Guntur district) have already been put on the fast track. Though the Gundugolanu-Kaza bypass was granted almost a decade ago, work picked up pace after the YSRC came to power in the state. The previous TDP government had put the project on hold with a view to designing the river overbridge as an iconic structure. However, the designs were not cleared even after a lapse of five years. Considering the high cost involved in the bridge project, the Centre asked the state government to bear a 50 per cent share of the project.