Overflowing manholes trouble Tirupati city residents

Tirupati: The manholes in the pilgrim city has become hindrance for residents to walk and commuters to ride on the road as foul smell has been emanating from them due to overflowing of drain water on to the road. The underground drains with manholes were laid up to a length of 25 km in Tirupati, 22 years ago.

The drainage passes from Alipiri to sewage treatment plant at Thukivakam via residential colonies in old city. Overflowing of manholes was attributed to dumping of plastic and other waste into drain canals. It has become daunting task for civic body’s public health staff for cleaning the manholes. It is learnt that drainage pipes were damaged because of plastic dumping.

Locals are hesitating to come out of their houses as they are forced to walk on the road as drain water spilling on to the roads. According to the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT), more than 200 manholes are not in proper condition and few of them are about to collapse. Walls of manholes were completely damaged at Yadava Colony, Konka Street, Sanjay Gandhi Colony, Korlagunta, Peddakapu Layout and Bandla Street. 

In the last 15 years, no civic chief has taken an initiative to fix the manhole issue permanently. The present MCT Commissioner Vijay Rama Raju directed the officials to reconstruct the damaged manholes by the funds of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme.

The engineering department of the MCT has decided to lay new underground pipelines in the newly merged residential colonies with the Corporation. K Sampath, a resident of Yadava Colony, has expressed anguish over overflowing of manholes. Speaking to The Hans India, Municipal Engineer Chandrashekar said Vijay Rama Raju gave instructions to reconstruct the damaged underground manholes in the city.