Amaravati facing the brunt of unfinished development

Even as the much-hyped development of the interim capital city, promised at the time of Pushkarams to the River Krishna, with Rs 2000 crore is yet to take place, the people of the city are bearing the brunt of half-executed development works even six months after the conclusion of the event. The State Government launched several development works with more than Rs 2000 crore on nomination basis at the time of the Pushkarams.

The city residents dreamt of accessing global amenities. After the euphoria associated with the pushkarams died down following conclusion of the event six months ago, amenities promised by leaders right from the local MLA to that of the Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, were limited to mere statements.

Works on the highway linking Krishna Lanka with the city were taken up around the time of pushkarams to make available the road to pilgrims visiting the city for the event. Afterwards, the works were left in the lurch resulting in them causing impediment to traffic movement.

The people travelling to Krishna Lanka or to the bus stand via the fire station on the Bandar Road are facing severe hardships because the sub-way at the fire station still remained incomplete posing problems to school children, women and office-goers.

The wall separating the Krishna Lanka and the highway still remained incomplete giving nightmares to the people. Even if the people cross all these hurdles, ditches dug indiscriminately on the Krishna Lanka service road welcome them. They are apprehensive of taking children along with them on the road for fear of the ditches.

At the time of pushkarams, the district officials took steps to ensure that there is greenery all along the length of Krishna canals. Even some persons were appointed to nurse the plants. Once the Pushkarams ended, there was none to water the flower plants at least once in two days. As a result, the plants withered away highlighting the official apathy to beautify the city.

Bathing ghats built for the pushkarams spending hundreds of cores are badly in need of maintenance. There were no signs of at least someone sweeping the ghats. The ghats present an ugly look with filth getting deposited and tiles coming off at some places. Water released to the ghats at the time of pushkarams got stranded emitting a reeking smell. The people are skipping the venue for fear of contracting diseases.

Local YSRCP corporator Chandana Suresh pointed out that there was every danger of the places becoming favourite spots for anti-social elements. The half-completed development works all along the route of Krishna Lanka-Krishnaveni Ghat are causing inconvenience to people, he said appealing to authorities to complete the works as early as possible.

The CPM city secretary, Donepudi Kasinath, is breathing fire on officials for snail’s progress of development works. He noted that there was no correlation whatsoever between the sayings and doings of the state government. Admitting that the development works are not fully executed, city Mayor Koneru Sridhar said that the national highway officials have been attending to the highway expansion works while the city municipal corporation was limited to taking care of developing the feeder roads.

Barring 500 meters of the feeder roads, which the national highway authorities are taking care of, the city municipal corporation is executing the rest of the feeder roads at a cost of Rs 3.75 crore. About Rs 90 crore has been released for development of internal roads, he said adding that the corporation would complete them as early as possible.

Deputy Mayor Gogula Ramana said that local legislator Gadde Rammohan is supervising the development of feeder roads under the constituency development programme and sounded optimistic that the works would be completed soon. He admitted to unhygienic conditions prevailing near the pushkar ghats.

A detailed project report is being prepared on the directions of the Chief Minister to develop a river front capital city. The Deputy Mayor said that the development works would commence under the supervision of Amaravati Development Board Chairperson Lakshmi Parthasarathi.

As part of the efforts to beautify the city, works on sewerage development commenced during the current week, he said exuding confidence to groom the capital city as the beautiful city with the cooperation of various government departments. The Hans India tried to contact the Municipal Commissioner Veera Pandian for his clarification on the development works, but he could not be reached.

By G Madhu