All set for the construction of Bangalore-Vijayawada Greenfield Express Highway undertaken by the Central and State Governments as part of the Bharatmala project. This greenfield highway of 342 kilometers will be constructed with six lanes at a cost of Rs.19,200 crores. The Andhra Pradesh government has already completed the land acquisition process for this highway. With that, the National Highway Development Agency (NHAI) has called for tenders in 10 packages and has accelerated the process of handing over the works. Tenders were invited for four packages and the officials are aiming to complete this project by 2025.
At present there is no direct road to Rayalaseema area through Vijayawada and Karnataka is also not well connected. Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has proposed Bangalore-Vijayawada Greenfield Express Highway as the first greenfield highway in the state with a two-pronged strategy to achieve these two objectives. Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari approved the proposals presented by CM Jagan. At present, a route map has been designed to reduce the distance between Bangalore and Vijayawada by almost half. Once the construction of this highway is completed, Bangalore can be reached within six hours.
This highway starts from the suburbs of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka and pass through, Kandikonda in Puttaparthi district, Pulivendula in YSR district, Mallepally in Nellore district, Vangapadu, Prakasam district, it comes to Medarametla via Addaki. There it will be connected to National Highway-16. It directly connects Vijayawada.