Thousands of tribal hamlets in Andhra Pradesh have long endured a painful reality: when a patient falls critically ill, neighbours carry them on makeshift stretchers — called dolis — across forest terrain because no motorable road exists. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday, October 11, 2026, publicly congratulated Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan for pushing the 'Adavitalli Bata' (Forest Mother's Path) programme forward — a scheme designed to end that practice permanently.

In a post in Telugu, Naidu praised Kalyan for successfully completing the first phase of the initiative and now launching 'Adavitalli Bata 2.0' — an expansion that will build 1,976 kilometres of new roads connecting 1,341 tribal habitations, at an outlay of Rs 2,052 crore. 'This is not merely road construction,' Naidu wrote, 'it is liberation from the hardships of tribal communities and an assurance of access to emergency medical services.'

What 'Adavitalli Bata' Targets — and Why Doli Carrying Became a Symbol

The phrase 'doli mota' — being carried on a stretcher through the jungle — has become shorthand in Andhra Pradesh's tribal policy debate for the extreme isolation that interior Scheduled Tribe hamlets face. Pregnant women in labour, accident victims, and the critically ill have historically been transported this way when roads did not reach their villages. The 'Adavitalli Bata' programme directly attacks this infrastructure gap, framing road-building as a health and human-dignity intervention as much as a connectivity one.

Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, who holds the tribal welfare portfolio in the NDA coalition government, has been the political face of the initiative. The first phase — completed before this second-phase launch — laid the groundwork and, by the government's account, was finished successfully. Phase 2 scales that ambition significantly: 1,341 new habitations and nearly 2,000 kilometres of road for over Rs 2,052 crore.

Naidu's Political Signal Behind the Public Praise

CM Naidu's public congratulations to his coalition partner Pawan Kalyan carry weight beyond ceremony. The Telugu Desam Party and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party govern Andhra Pradesh together under the NDA alliance, and visible solidarity between the two leaders on a flagship tribal welfare scheme reinforces the coalition's shared governance narrative ahead of continued development pushes.

Naidu described the programme as a 'mahattar yagnam' — a great, sacred endeavour — and said he 'wholeheartedly wishes' for its continued success. The choice of language signals this is not a routine departmental milestone; the government is positioning 'Adavitalli Bata 2.0' as a landmark moment in Andhra Pradesh's tribal development story.

What 1,976 Km of New Roads Could Mean on the Ground

At Rs 2,052 crore for 1,976 km, the average per-kilometre cost works out to roughly Rs 1.04 crore — consistent with rural and forest-area road construction in India's tribal belt, where terrain, gradient, and environmental compliance add to costs. Once connected, these hamlets gain not just passable roads but access to school buses, supply chains for agricultural produce, and — critically — ambulances able to reach them within the 'golden hour' window for medical emergencies.

For 1,341 habitations that have waited decades for basic connectivity, the programme's second phase is the difference between integration and continued isolation. If the targets are met, Andhra Pradesh's tribal-area road network will expand materially — and the imagery of families carrying their sick through the forest on a stretcher will, at last, belong to history.