Plans afoot to relocate people from hill slopes in city: V Prasanna Venkatesh

Vijayawada: The VMC authorities are planning to relocate people from hill slopes in city by constructing G3 apartments. Speaking to media here on Saturday, Municipal Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh said that there was no chance of constructing a retaining wall at the hill slopes as environmental clearance is needed.

He stated that they planned to remove the houses where people are living at critical places and if they are willing, they would construct apartments near their places under the PMAY and shift the people.

He opined that then the others would also evince interest to move to the apartments. Then, the vacated areas would be developed with greenery and secure that place by setting fencing to prevent from encroachments. He also stated that the same plan was explained to Minister Vellampalli Srinivas.

He said that along with public concern, the land concern was also important. There was no land in the city to construct houses for the shifted people and land may be found on the outskirts of the city, he stated and added people were not willing to go there.

He said the people living on hill slopes say that the road was nearer to them and hence they don't want to go anywhere else. He said that if they get any place nearer to their houses they can be removed from those places. He said there were lakhs of people living on the hills in the city and also at Visakhapatnam.

So, they want to take one area as a pilot project and based on the response, the pilot project will be implemented in other places also, he added. They would identify such vulnerable location, where the frequent landslides occur to be taken as a pilot project. However, there will be no forcible shifting of people. He also stated that some houses were already constructed and they will try to sensitise people on hill slopes to move to the already constructed houses.