Centre announces iconic bridge on Krishna to connect Andhra, Telangana

The bridge is also expected to attract tourists to its picturesque location on the Srisailam reservoir backwaters in the Nallamala range

The Union government approved a cable-stayed-cum-suspension bridge across the river Krishna between Andhra Pradesh and south Telangana at a cost of Rs 1,082.56 crore.

The iconic bridge, first of its kind in India and second in the world, will take 30 months to build, construction, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari revealed.

Once completed and functional, the swish bridge—to be constructed between Somasila in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district and Sangameswaram in Nandyal district in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh—will reduce the distance between Hyderabad and the popular temple town of Tirupati by 80 km.

Besides shortening distances, the aesthetically designed bridge is expected to attract tourists to its picturesque location on the Srisailam reservoir backwaters in the Nallamala range.

The bridge would have several unique features such as the longest glass pedestrian walkway across a river, temple gopuram-like pylons, signature lighting and a large navigational span.

“The bridge has beautiful surroundings with the sprawling Srisailam reservoir surrounded by Nallamala forests and high mountains with huge tourist potential. It presents an attractive view of the Lalitha Someswara Swamy temple on the Telangana side and Sangameswaram temple on the Andhra Pradesh side,” Gadkari said in a series of tweets on Thursday evening.

“Bringing prosperity through world class infrastructure in New India…. The hybrid structural arrangement in the bridge will give a structural advantage and make it economical as well as aesthetically pleasing,” the senior minister described.

A bridge to connect the Kollapur and Atmakur areas on the two sides of River Krishna, now falling under two states, is a long-pending demand from the locals. People have to travel for hours by road or take hazardous boat rides on the river to reach the other side.

Over 60 people, many of them women and children, were killed when the boat they were traveling in capsized in January 2017.

Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh, had at the time announced that a bridge would be built at the site with a budget of Rs 70 crore. The project remained a non-starter despite change of governments, revised estimates and even after the state’s bifurcation in 2014.