Tourism project at Ponnada hills on the anvil

Srikakulam: As part of its programme to develop tourism on a priority basis, the state government has decided to construct a tourism project on Ponnada hills in the district adjacent to Naagavali river near Srikakulam city. In this connection, the district administration has chalked out a plan to build Sri Krishna temple, a cultural convention centre and Shilparamam on the hills.

Local people have been demanding a tourist spot here since 1999 and at that time, they submitted a memorandum to the then Tourism Minister G S S Sivaji. Two years year ago, a road bridge was completed across Naagavali river adjacent to Ponnada Hills and with this facility, the demand for tourism project got a further momentum.

The road bridge was reduced to 15 km distance between 15 sea coast villages and Srikakulam city. For the first time in 2003, proposals were prepared for the tourism project here at an estimated cost of Rs 1 crore, again in 2005 second time proposals prepared with Rs 2 crore estimations but not materialised. Now, the state government has decided to allot Rs 5 crore for the tourist spot, Sri Krishna temple and cultural centre on the hills

for which 29 acres land was acquired. The Visakhapatnam Shilparamam officials inspected the hills and submitted a feasibility report. Basing on it, the state government has sanctioned Rs 58.35 lakh initially for the project. “The hills are situated adjacent to the Nagavali River with a new road bridge which is favourable for tourism development,” a former sarpanch of Ponnada village, Panchireddy Krishna Rao, who fought for road bridge across the river and tourism project on the hills told The Hans India here on Tuesday.

He expressed his happiness over the sanctioning of funds. District Tourism Promotion Officer (DTPO), N Narayana Rao said, “The government is planning to improve it through public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.