Dockyard employees seek solution to commuting woes

Visakhapatnam : The families of Visakhapatnam Naval Dockyard employees on Wednesday demanded that their commuting problems be resolved with immediate effect.

Officials concerned recently announced that the port's dockyard bridge, which was in service for years, has been closed for nine months for reconstruction purposes.

As repairs are in progress for the past few days, thousands of people are constantly commuting along the 13-km route to and fro. Even though they requested permission to travel from within the dockyard, the officials said that it was not possible because of security reasons.

On September 27, an employee was returning home from the dockyard when he was hit by a lorry at Sheelanagar toll gate road and he died on the spot. Condemning the attitude of the dockyard management, a majority of the employees protested at the dockyard main gate. Following the tense atmosphere, the protest was continued for the next day too.

Family members of dockyard employees and people in neighbouring areas reached the Vijayanagar gate and staged a protest displaying placards. During the protest, employees were not allowed to perform their duties.

After getting the information about the agitation at the dockyard gate, spouses and children of the dockyard employees in Vijayanagar Colony, 104 Area and surrounding areas reached the gate and raised slogans against the management.

The entire service road from Vijayanagar gate to the warehouses was blocked from morning to afternoon. With this, the representatives of the management held a meeting with the labour unions. They asked the Joint Action Committee to give some time of four to five days to make a decision.

Following the route diversion, the dockyard employees claim that the long route is leading to road accidents. And hence they requested the management to provide them an alternative route.

On Tuesday, Visakhapatnam West MLA PGVR Naidu visited the area and interacted with the locals. Similarly, for an alternative solution, various trade unions along with the Joint Trade Union Committee have appealed to the MLA to allow the employees to use the Meghadri gate and Vizianagaram gate routes at SBC. Responding to the appeal, the MLA suggested to the dockyard management to allow traffic through the SBC bridge.