Vijayawada: Urmila Subbarao Nagar faces a plethora of civic problems

Vijayawada: Narrow lanes, parking issues, garbage, poor sanitisation are some of the problems being faced by the residents of Urmila Subbarao Nagar in Vijayawada.

The colony is one of the biggest colonies and thickly populated area in West Assembly constituency developed by Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) in the last 30 years. Thousands of families, particularly workers of different professions, purchased house sites and settled in the colony as the VMC had constructed CC roads and arranged streetlights. Large number of construction workers, mutha workers and others have settled in the colony.

When the colony was formed, Budameru water inundated the colony and the problem persisted for over 20 years. Construction of Budameru diversion channel connecting Budameru to Krishna river in Ibrahimpatnam has changed the status of Urmila Nagar.

Budameru flood water stopped the inundation problems in Urmila Nagar for the past ten years. Consequently, many families belonging to middle income and lower income groups have purchased house sites and gradually new buildings were constructed and commercial activity also increased in Urmila Nagar.

There is bus connectivity from Urmila Nagar to different parts of the city. Since it is located near bypass road and there are several educational institutions, private schools and colleges, demand for rented houses also increased in recent years in the colony.

After the best part, here comes a few major issues that are plaguing Urmila Nagar. The colony needs storm water drains and underground drainage (UGD) pipelines works must be completed at the earliest, said L Mohan, local CPM leader. He said the government has shifted several hundreds of people from Bhaskar Rao Pet and other places about 30 years ago to Urmila Nagar. 'UGD connections are yet to be given to the houses.'

Due to lack of proper planning, many houses were built along small narrow lanes and parking is the biggest problem faced by the residents to park their vehicles. Also, there are no parks in the colony and there is a great need to improve sanitisation.

With the increase of population, garbage production also increased. The VMC is implementing door-to-door garbage collection.

Due to lack of proper drainage system, sewage water will get stagnated in the side drains, resulting in mosquitoes menace. The big colony has no playgrounds and parks for children's recreation.