Shifting of high tension towers delay Vijayawada West bypass road works

Vijayawada: The full-fledged completion of the Vijayawada West bypass road is likely to be pushed to the end of the year or early next year. The shifting of the High Tension (HT) line towers spanning approximately 520 metre on the package-III stretch from Gannavaram to Gollapudi is expected to take another three months.

The 47.8 km Vijayawada Western Bypass, being constructed under Bharat Mala Pariyojana, starts from Chinna Avutapalli in Gannavaram and culminates at Chinna Kakani on the outskirts of Mangalagiri. It will bypass the vehicular traffic going towards Chennai and Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam and vice versa, as vehicles could bypass without entering Vijayawada city, significantly reducing the traffic burden on the city.

While the Bharat Mala Pariyojana road infrastructure project was divided into four packages, the works on the first two packages—package-I from Gundugolanu to Kalaparru and package-II from Kalaparru to Chinna Avutapalli, which includes the six-laning of the highway road—were completed. The completion of package-III and package-IV from Chinna Avutapalli to Gollapudi and Gollapudi to Chinna Kakani has hit multiple roadblocks, resulting in the delay of the inauguration of the Vijayawada Western Bypass.

"Originally, the bypass road was to be completed by March 2025. However, govt objected to the bypass not having road cuttings to the roads within the Amaravati capital, which led to its delay for some time. Following this, the bypass road project hit the HT lines roadblock, wherein HT line towers near Nunna stretching nearly 1.2 km had to be shifted due to their positioning right within the project alignment," an NHAI official said.

Earlier, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, during a review meeting, directed the officials to complete the bypass road works by June and to allow vehicles to ply along the bypass to ease the traffic congestion.

"We missed the June deadline given by the chief minister as the problem to shift HT line towers in around a 520-metre stretch is still pending resolution. We are awaiting the shifting of the HT line towers, which is expected to take another three months, thus to fast-track the remaining works, which would be completed in a short span," the NHAI official said.