Rajamahendravaram roads to get facelift soon

Rajamahendravaram: Barring a few in the relatively newly developed areas in the peripheral beyond Danavaipet till national highway 5, most of the roads in the city are in bad shape. Be it lack of quality or the vagaries of nature - there is not a single road in the city that one can see without patchwork, says S Venkateswara Rao of Gandhinagar.

Roads from Dowlaiswaram and Lala Cheruvu, from the road-cum-rail bridge into the city, were all laid six years ago during Godavari Pushkaralu. The Pushkaram road lasted for only a couple of years at several places.

It is an annual ritual for people living in several areas like Thyagaraja Nagar, Government Junior College, roads from Devi Chowk to paper mills via Venkateswara Apartments and other areas to experience water-logging problems.

After the water recedes, people have to travel on the muddy and damaged roads, claimed C Seshagiri Rao, a medical representative, who lives in Lakshmivarapu Peta. He added even the famous Godavari Bund road was not in good shape.

However, revamping of most of the roads within the Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation (RMC) is expected to be addressed within a few months, as the RMC has stepped up laying of new roads and BT topping of the old roads with the funds provided under 14th Finance Commission and Amruth Schemes.

East Godavari District Collector C Hari Kiran, along with Rajamahendravaram Sub-Collector Ilakkiya and Municipal Commissioner Abhishikt Kishore, inspected several areas in the city recently. The Collector said steps have been taken to lay new roads and revamp the old roads with BT topping, and also to construct new traffic diversions to address traffic congestion in the city as per city master plan. The works were taken at an estimated cost of Rs 82 crore provided under the 14th Finance Commission, as well as, the Amruth Scheme.

A 100-feet road expansion was taken up from the road-cum-rail bridge via 16th ward connecting the national highway at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore. Since the expansion works were taken up in the Ava area (low lying area), the engineering officials were told to ensure proper construction of drains and culverts. Besides, they were directed to focus on the quality execution of roadside drains to ensure free flow of rainwater to prevent water logging and damage to the roads. Currently, sewage is being let out at several points into River Godavari. Now works are going on to divert sewage from the city via low lying areas to the sewage treatment plant.