Traders oppose road widening

Pithapuram: Traders have been tightening their belts to get the proposed widening of roads, which was suspended 10 years ago and stalled by prevailing upon the State government from issuing the GO. They appear to be preparing to adopt the same strategy which they had adopted successfully twice earlier to get their work done.

Roads and Buildings Minister Ch Ayyanna Patrudu brought the widening of the main road in the historic town by at least six feet. Earlier, the road widening works, executed at a cost of Rs 40 crore, were successful from Chinnamamba park to Chitrada junction. The works did not progress beyond government hospital here. In fact, widening of road beyond the hospital was the need of the hour.

At that time land has been acquired only on the right side of the road as properties of the influential have been situated on the left side. The land acquisition has kicked off a huge controversy. The R and B officials had held several rounds of talks with displaced persons of a triangular site beyond the government hospital. Elected people’s representatives also held several rounds of talks with the displaced persons. Later, the road widening came to a standstill,The town gained significance because of its strategic location between important cities Kakinada and Visakhapatnam.

It is fast emerging as a commercial centre as well as a pilgrim centre. On the other hand, the Centre gave its green signal to the Pithapuram-Kakinada railway line. In the historic town, the roads are very narrow with not enough room for vehicles to manoeuvre. At the church centre, the traffic should come to a halt so that buses can freely turn either right or left on the road, which is designed as one-way traffic. Movement of the traffic on the road from church centre to Bangaramma Ravichettu is very difficult.Widening of the road on left side by at least three feet is necessary.

There were proposals to widen weekly Shandy-Church Centre road, municipal market, Kotagummam, gold market, Madhavaswamy temple road and so on. With the dead issue springing up again, the trading community is experiencing anxious moments. The loss of traders, who had lost land in the road-widening carried out 10 years ago, will be total if it is enforced again. They are apprehensive of being driven to streets. It is an open secret that compensation payable to the owners is negligible for them.

Therefore, the traders are making attempts to get the road widening stalled. Meanwhile, local legislator MVSN Sarma said that the beauty of the town would be enhanced only with widening of the roads. The roads are narrow and vehicular traffic has increased posing problems to the people. He appealed to the people of the town for their cooperation to widening of the city roads. It solves the parking problem near shops and business will improve, he said.

By Saride Nageswara Rao