BRS MLA Prashanth Reddy slams Congress for taking credit for RRR project

Hyderabad: BRS MLA and former R&B minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy on Tuesday criticised the Congress party for taking credit for initiating the Regional Ring Road (RRR) project, claiming that it was former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) who originally dreamed of the project.

The Centre granted in-principle approval for the northern portion of RRR in 2017, Prasanth Reddy said in the Assembly during a session on demands for grants for 2025-26, following numerous trips and repeated requests by the State government since 2015.

‘KCR discussed plan with Nitin Gadkari’

“To this end, Rs 100 crore was deposited, and for the first time in history, the Telangana government even agreed to pay half of the land acquisition cost. The RRR was incorporated into the Bharatmala project since the previous chief minister had seen Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in person a few times,” he said, displaying pictures of KCR with Gadkari.

Elaborating, the BRS leader said that a single acre has not been purchased by the Congress government for the northern portion of RRR in the past 15 months. He claimed that because the National Highways did not assign a highway number and it lacked environmental clearance, the tenders were delayed twice.

‘Congress altering arrangements made by BRS’

In a similar vein, in addition to finalising the alignment, the Centre had granted in principle for the Southern portion of RRR during the BRS government.

The former minister insisted, however, that the Congress government was altering the alignment without providing an explanation. He also clarified that the State exchequer would be burdened with Rs 15,000 crore if the alignment was altered and the NHAI chose not to proceed with the project.

‘BRS did not purchase any land for RRR, says Congress’

R&B Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy intervened and accused the previous minister of deceiving the House. He asserted that the northern region’s NH number had already been assigned by the NHAI. In addition, he claimed that 80 per cent of farmers had given their approval for the purchase of land and that the BRS government had not purchased any land.

Prashanth Reddy responded to the minister’s charges, saying, “I stand by my word on RRR data, and not a single word is incorrect. I am on record.” The former minister also highlighted the Congress government’s commitment to RRR, stating that over Rs 3,000 crore would be required for land acquisition and other costs in the northern region. According to him, just Rs 500 crore was provided in the budget for this purpose.

The former minister outlined the projects completed by the R&B department under the BRS government. Planned works cost Rs 12,988 crore, whereas unplanned works cost Rs 22,180 crore. In addition, Rs 24,832 crore was spent on building construction. According to him, throughout the BRS period, around 1 crore square feet of construction area was constructed.