Bengaluru and Vijayawada to be linked through expressway

To connect Bengaluru to Vijayawada and to reduce the travelling time, an expressway is being planned. The plan is to link Bengaluru to the capital of Andhra Pradesh, Amaravati, near Vijayawada. Currently, it takes over 12 hours to reach Vijayawada from the city. YS Jaganmohan Reddy, Chief Minister AP, and N Chandra Babu, the first CM of divided AP, are putting constant pressure on the Centre to approve an expressway to Bengaluru. As per the media reports, the sanctioning procedure is in the final stages. Vijayawada is 660 km far away from Bengaluru. The road crosses through Chittoor, Kolar, and Tirupati before joining the golden quadrilateral till Vijayawada. According to the existing plan, a new Brownfield arrangement is being planned. The road would link Bengaluru to Anantapur (on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad road). From Anantapur, the expressway would lead to Pulivendula and afterwards to Nandyal, Markapur, Narasaraopet, Kadapa, and Vijayawada. The National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI) informed that there is a plan to build an expressway between Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Although, it is still unclear if the expressway between Telangana and Karnataka capitals would be a Greenfield or a Brownfield project. There is an option to make the existing Bengaluru-Hyderabad expressway into an access-controlled highway by constructing service roads and flyovers. So, the Amaravati expressway would be linked with the Bengaluru-Hyderabad expressway till Anantapur. According to the media reports, the Center agreed for the project to be included in Bharatmala phase two. Therefore, it now has to select a consultant to make a detailed project report (DPR) based on which the cost and other factors would be considered. Moreover, during the Chief minister leadership of Chandrababu Naidu, a greenfield project was proposed between Amaravati to Anantapur, worth Rs 2,000 crore. However, with the government change, the alignment is now changed. The current Andhra Pradesh government wants to link Kadapa and Pulivendula to Bengaluru. Currently, the road is narrow at various places, and many don't prefer to take the route. Image Source Also read: Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, Kengeri metro, a boost for real estate Also read: Chennai’s Port-Maduravoyal expressway to cost over Rs 5,000 cr