New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the construction of the four-lane Badvel-Nellore corridor at a cost of Rs 3,653.10 crore in Andhra Pradesh.

The corridor, with a length of 108.134 km, will be constructed on the NH-67 on design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) mode, the CCEA announced after a meeting here.

The project will generate about 20 lakh man-days of direct employment and 23 lakh man-days of indirect employment.

The approved Badvel-Nellore corridor will provide connectivity to important nodes in the three industrial corridors of Andhra Pradesh — the Kopparthy Node on the Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC), the Orvakal Node on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (HBIC), and the Krishnapatnam Node on the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC).

“This will have a positive impact on the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) of the country,” said the CCEA in its statement.

The Badvel-Nellore corridor starts from Gopavaram village on the existing National Highway NH-67 in the YSR Kadapa district and terminates at the Krishnapatnam Port Junction on NH-16 (Chennai-Kolkata) in the SPSR Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

It would also provide strategic connectivity to the Krishnapatnam Port, which has been identified as a priority node under the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC).

The proposed corridor will reduce the travel distance to Krishanpatnam port by 33.9 km — from 142 km to 108.13 km — as compared to the existing Badvel-Nellore road.

“This will reduce the travel time by one hour and ensure that substantial gain is achieved in terms of reduced fuel consumption, thereby reducing carbon footprint and Vehicle Operating Cost (VOC),” according to the CCEA.

The four-lane Badvel-Nellore corridor project will also induce additional employment opportunities due to an increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed corridor, the Cabinet added.

–IANS

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