Mancherial - Warangal Expressway

A contract award by NHAI does not mean land acquisition is complete. That distinction is the single most important fact for anyone buying near this corridor.

All three Mancherial-Warangal packages were awarded to MEIL in March 2023 with a two-year construction deadline. As per NHAI's own project status document dated January 2025, all three remain "awarded but not started." The reason is land acquisition. The NH-163G corridor, covering approximately 275 km across Telangana, was flagged as a major casualty of stalled land acquisition in a letter from Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy to the Telangana Chief Minister in March 2023. The Mancherial-Warangal section (₹3,441 crore) was explicitly named as one of the blocked projects.

The compensation dispute compounds the delay. In July 2024, lawyers representing farmers whose land was notified for the 112-km corridor from Narva to Oorugonda submitted representations to the Mancherial Collector, arguing that land compensation rates had not been revised since 2013. Under the National Highways Act, compensation is based on market value at the time of the Section 3A notification, assessed using the previous three years' sale data. When those reference values are frozen at 2013 prices, farmers in a district where coal-belt land values have moved significantly receive compensation that bears no relationship to current market price. The Telangana CM held a review meeting in September 2025 and ordered all pending highway land acquisition cases to be resolved by October 2025, but as of that review, court cases were still pending in multiple districts and compensation fund release from NHAI's competent authority remained delayed.

The table below shows the three construction packages under which MEIL holds contracts for the Mancherial-Warangal section.

Any plot in Narva, Jaipur mandal, Puttapaka, or Pangidipalle that sits within the greenfield acquisition strip has been notified for acquisition and carries a live compensation claim. The High Court has received land acquisition cases from this corridor. A buyer who purchases within the notified strip after the Section 3A notification date does not inherit the compensation; that right stays with the original owner at notification time.

The greenfield nature of this highway is its defining investment characteristic. Unlike a brownfield upgrade that widens an existing road, this corridor cuts entirely new land between Mancherial and Warangal. That means the acquisition strip is not alongside a road you can see today. It runs through agricultural land across Jaipur mandal in Mancherial district and extends through villages into Hanamkonda district near Warangal. Plots that look untouched today may sit directly inside a boundary that has been gazette-notified and is pending physical handover.

The legitimate investment zone is land outside the acquisition strip, with full NALA conversion done. Under the Telangana Non-Agricultural Lands Assessment Act of 1963, no agricultural land can be used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes without prior conversion approval from the Revenue Officer. In non-GHMC areas like Mancherial and Warangal districts, the NALA tax is 9% of the basic value of the land. Applications go through MeeSeva centres, with the Tahsildar as the competent authority. If this step is skipped, you cannot legally obtain building permission, a layout approval, or factory clearance on the same plot.

The table below maps zones along the NH-163G Mancherial-Warangal corridor by investment risk.

The most misunderstood investment pitch on this corridor is farmland near Puttapaka or Pangidipalle, sold as "adjacent to the expressway." On a fully greenfield alignment, adjacent to the road means adjacent to the acquisition strip, not adjacent to infrastructure that already exists. Until NHAI completes land handover and MEIL begins physical work, those plots carry both acquisition risk and NALA risk simultaneously.