Changing skyline of Vijayawada

The city’s skyline is changing with new sky rise structures coming up. Old buildings on narrow roads are giving way to high rise structures and the change is apparent in the past two decades. Narrow roads were first widened in early 2000s with a team of officers led by Collector BR Meena and J Suresh Babu as the vice-chairman of the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali Urban Development Authority.

The Karl Marx Road popularly called as Eluru Road was widened from the Police Control Room to Machavaram in the first phase and was extended up to Ramavarappadu Ring later. Similarly, the Mahatma Gandhi Road, popularly known as Bandar Road, was initially widened from Old Bus Station to Veterinary Hospital junction in the first phase and was extended to Benz Circle later. The widening has helped land owners in the city to go for better and modern structures. Several slums on Bandar Road have disappeared in the widening exercise with small buildings coming up. Small and old buildings on Eluru Road were replaced with new structures changing the ambiance of the city.

A good number of hotels and shopping malls have come up over the period all along the Bandar Road giving a metropolitan look to the city. The traditional brick walls and iron shutters have disappeared and decorative glass frames have come up adding corporate culture. Any visitor who had been to the city 10-15 years ago is sure to find a drastic change in the city, particularly in its roads and the buildings.

Though the Kandhari Hotel had disappeared, a multistoried star hotel, Fortune Murali Park, had come up in its place. The vacant site of erstwhile Telugu daily office now houses the city’s star hotel, Taj Gateway, while the daily’s office is renovated and now houses South India’s leading jewellers. The long compound wall at AR Grounds has been replaced by a shopping complex, while the old Venkateswara Theatre has been replaced by a three-star hotel.

The look is almost same on Eluru Road, at least up to Kothavantena Center from Old Bus Station. Several new buildings have come up and some more are in different stages of development giving a corporate and metropolitan look to the city, prepping itself as the State’s new capital.