AMARAVATI: The government has put the process of land acquisition for the crucial Amaravati-Anantapuram national expressway on fast-track. It has directed district collectors to expedite field surveys.After dilly-dallying for nearly three years, the Centre had recently communicated to the state government that it was ready to take up the construction of the major infrastructure project, provided the state government acquires land required for the project on its own.The Centre made it clear that it will not spare funds for land acquisition, which might cost around Rs 2,500 crore. The Centre has also trimmed the width of the six-lane expressway to 100 metres from the proposed 200 metres.The state government had unsuccessfully waged a battle against the Centre to see that the land acquisition cost, too, was included in the project cost saying that the state’s finances were in doll drums following the bifurcation. Although, the Centre initially looked convinced with the proposal, the TDP’s exit from the NDA has changed the equations.The Centre has completely backtracked from its positive approach, and pushed the land acquisition ball into the state government’s court.Left with no option, the government has decided to go ahead with the land acquisition to complete the project.The Amaravati-Anantapuram straight line expressway is the idea of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to give hassle free connectivity to the Rayalaseema region with the capital city area. This is considered to be the first and longest expressway in the country to have been designed without curves and turns throughout the length.The state government last week directed district collectors of Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool , Anantapuram and Kadapa to speed up the process of land acquisition. Collectors were asked to constitute additional teams to complete the survey. “We have already launched the survey, and planning to wind up early,” Guntur district collector, Kona Sasidhar told TOI.In fact, the revenue department started peg marking of lands for taking up the expressway about eight months ago, but it was abruptly stalled following opposition from farmers.The reduction of the road width will not only bring down the burden on the exchequer, but also ease tensions at the field level as it would lessen the farmers’ anger. It has been proposed to lay a six-lane road for about 208-km of the total 394-km long expressway. It would be four-lane highway for the remaining 185-km long stretch.

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