Fear grip residents of hilly terrains

Visakhapatnam: People residing in hilly areas are gripped with fear, especially during monsoon season. Following continuous rains, houses built along the hillside are on the verge of falling down.

With mud slowly tearing off, five houses are on the brink of sliding down at Ramakrishna Nagar, Gopalapatnam.

Currently, the residents are at a rehabilitation centre as officials evacuated them and helped them shift to the centre. In the rest of the hilly areas, risk continues to haunt the residents as several mud houses have become vulnerable due to incessant downpour in the city and they fear that danger may strike them any moment. Thousands of people in the city have settled in hilly areas, including Arilova, Visalakshinagar, Pedagadili, Chinnagadili, Vepagunta, Disabled Colony in Madhurawada, Rickshaw Colony, HB Colony, Durganagar, Kapparada, Kancharapalem, Kailasapuram, Murali Nagar, Gopalapatnam, Pendurthi, Gajuwaka, Malkapuram, among others.

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is providing basic facilities to the residents. However, with every passing year, encroachments are increasing in these hilly areas.

The authorities concerned fail to take proper measures to prevent occupations and consider measures against calamities. Following rains, landslip complaints were received from hilly areas in the city.

Even as MLA PGVR Naidu and Collector MN Harendhira Prasad, among other officials, visited hilly terrains, a sense of fear continues to prevail among the residents.

Eight years back, three persons died as a house in a hilly terrain fell off another house down at Kailasapuram.

Also, two persons died in two different incidents that happened in Gajuwaka and Malkapuram as a boundary wall collapsed due to heavy rains.

During cyclones, property damage was registered to a large extent.

Approximately, 135 colonies are present in hilly terrains across Visakhapatnam. About 15,000 families reside in such colonies.

According to a survey carried out by the GVMC, five colonies were identified as vulnerable. The officials’ concerns need to focus more on such localities during the cyclones.