Plan hits roadblock

Vijayawada: The expansion of the bottleneck stretch between Benz Circle and Kanuru Centre in Vijayawada-Machilipatnam highway turned a difficult task to the state government. The 64-km expansion work was started from Kanuru to Machilipatnam and the majority of work was completed successfully by Dilip Buildcon Construction Engineering Company.

Now the important four km stretch from Benz Circle to Kanuru remained a challenge in the total project. Krishna District Collector B Lakshmikantham reviewed the expansion work two days ago and announced the removal of encroachments as a part of expansion of road work, but the majority of building owners are opposing the move. They demand that the government announce compensation plan first. The building owners also said the officials completed the marking for expansion, but they did not conduct at least a meeting with building owners.

As per initial plans, the expansion of road work should be completed by October this year. But the government is yet to start expansion work between Benz Circle and Kanuru stretch. Now, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) directed the District Collector to remove the encroachments in the particular stretch. The construction company was also instructed to participate in the works along with the NHAI.

The officials of NHAI, Revenue and Vijayawada Municipal Corporation have already jointly made a plan for expansion of the road. Presently, the width of the stretch is from 60 feet to 80 feet at different areas. But the officials conducted a survey and marked the alignment for expansion up to 120 feet.

As many as 2,000 shops, buildings, commercial complexes and houses should be demolished partially and some structures fully. It needs a huge sum for paying compensation, said one former official in CRDA. He wondered as to how the government would widen the road without finalising the compensation. The government could not take up expansion work so far due to the huge amount involved for compensation, he said. However, there are some common views among the officials and people that the construction of flyover is easy instead of paying huge compensation.

L Chennulu, a building owner at NTR Circle, speaking to The Hans India, said that he has been living on the rents of his shop which was given for a medical shop. He said the government did not issue at least notices to the building owners so far. Matham Ramakrishna said that the government should announce package first for compensation before removal of structures. He said that the government should not remove any structure in the name of encroachment.