Travel time between Raipur and Visakhapatnam is set to reduce by nearly half with the development of the Raipur-Visakhapatnam Economic Corridor, a 464-kilometre, six-lane access-controlled highway being built at a total investment of ₹16,491 crore. Designed for speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, the project aims to significantly enhance regional connectivity by directly linking industrial centres with the Visakhapatnam port.
A key feature of the project is a 2.79-kilometre twin-tube tunnel passing through the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, designed to ensure uninterrupted wildlife movement while enabling faster travel through difficult terrain. Once completed, the journey time to Visakhapatnam is expected to come down from around 12 hours to approximately 6 to 7 hours, contributing to fuel savings and a substantial reduction in carbon emissions.
The corridor incorporates several advanced safety and environmental protection measures, including dedicated animal overpasses and underpasses, monkey canopies, traffic impact attenuators to reduce accident severity, and an advanced camera-based surveillance system to ensure safe and smooth traffic flow along the route.
As part of the project’s implementation, a delegation of journalists from Raipur recently visited construction sites along the corridor, including the 125-kilometre Chhattisgarh section being developed at an estimated cost of ₹4,146 crore across three major packages between Jhanki and Marangpuri. The visit offered a first-hand view of engineering works and environmental safeguards being adopted on the state’s first six-lane eco-corridor.
The corridor is also expected to play a significant role in improving connectivity for tribal and aspirational districts such as Dhamtari, Kanker and Kondagaon, while facilitating faster movement of mineral resources from Chhattisgarh’s mining regions to coastal ports. Construction across the Chhattisgarh packages is progressing rapidly, with completion timelines projected between April and November 2026.
