The Union Cabinet approved multiple infrastructure projects across national highways and railways, with a total cost of around Rs 7,052 crore.
These include the construction of a four-lane Badvel–Nellore corridor with a length of 108.134 km at a cost of Rs 3,653.10 crore in Andhra Pradesh, and railway multitracking projects in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra costing Rs 3,399 crore.
“The approved Badvel–Nellore corridor will provide connectivity to important nodes in the three industrial corridors of Andhra Pradesh, i.e., Kopparthy Node on the Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC), Orvakal Node on the Hyderabad–Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (HBIC), and Krishnapatnam Node on the Chennai–Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC). This will have a positive impact on the Logistic Performance Index (LPI) of the country,” a Cabinet statement said.
The proposed corridor will reduce the travel distance to Krishnapatnam Port by 33.9 km—from 142 km to 108.13 km—compared to the existing Badvel–Nellore road. This will reduce travel time by an hour and lead to significant savings in fuel consumption, thereby lowering the carbon footprint and vehicle operating cost (VOC).
