Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed that every road in the state must be made pothole-free by December 31, 2025, a deadline officials admit will require an extraordinary push.
Years of poor maintenance, repeated monsoon damage and administrative paralysis have left large stretches of the state’s road network in disrepair, a concern consistently raised by citizens. The deterioration has been especially sharp over the last five years. Officials acknowledge that prolonged neglect under the previous YSR Congress Party government, combined with successive cyclones, pushed the system close to collapse. Cyclones alone tore through nearly 4,800 km of roads, rendering many sections unusable and creating a repair backlog worth thousands of crores.
Chairing a high-level teleconference with Roads & Buildings (R&B) Minister BC Janardhan Reddy, Special Chief Secretary MT Krishna Babu and senior officials, Naidu said the department must “get cracking”. He instructed the Minister and the Special Chief Secretary to personally inspect road works across districts and warned non-performing contractors that failure to begin awarded works would invite immediate action. He stressed that there would be no compromise on quality and that all works must meet the highest engineering standards.
Naidu also ordered the adoption of advanced technology and new-generation materials to ensure durability. “By December 31, not a single pothole should remain anywhere in the state,” he said.
Since the TDP-led NDA government assumed office in 2024, record allocations have been made for road development. The government says it has unlocked unprecedented funds for repairs and construction, yet many roads continue to resemble “craters on the moon”.
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According to official data, the government has sanctioned ₹2,500 crore for repairs and construction covering 5,471 km of roads. Additionally, proposals worth ₹500 crore have been submitted for emergency repairs on another 9,101 km, with priority for cyclone-damaged stretches. Officials say the scale of funding exceeds even the allocations during the bifurcation years, when substantial central support was available.
One of the biggest bottlenecks facing the new government in June 2024 was a massive pile-up of unpaid contractor bills. R&B officials informed the CM that nearly ₹4,000 crore worth of bill, some pending for more than two years, had deepened mistrust among contractors. The government has since cleared ₹1,900 crore and is releasing the remaining amount in monthly instalments to restore confidence and ensure contractor mobilisation ahead of the December deadline.
The R&B Minister and Special Chief Secretary have held multiple meetings with contractors in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Puttaparthi to accelerate execution. The government has now branded the initiative as “Mission Pothole-Free Andhra Pradesh”, under which district-wise targets, inspection schedules and audit mechanisms are being finalised. Officials will submit daily progress reports, and quality-control teams will conduct surprise inspections to ensure compliance.
All departments have been instructed to complete pending works “next week itself” and move to black-topping, patchwork and strengthening activities ahead of the deadline. Naidu, who has been reviewing infrastructure restoration weekly, told his team: “People deserve good roads. We have given road development the highest priority and allocated record funds. Now there is no scope for excuses.”
The urgency, officials say, is also driven by public pressure. Complaints about poor roads, especially in rural belts where farmers struggle to transport produce and emergency services face delays, have been repeatedly highlighted during government reviews and field visits.
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