The Hindu 23.07.2009
VMC Commissioner urged to drop move to widen Bhagat Singh road
Staff Reporter
| They offer seven alternatives, including development of Madhura Nagar road |
Nearly 60,000 people from Vambay and other areas go to Autonagar daily, they say
The residents also suggested extension of present road from drain to drain
VIJAYAWADA: Residents of Bhagat Singh road submitted a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner P.S. Pradyumna at the adalat organised in the Circle-II office of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) at Satyanarayanapuram on Wednesday, urging him to shelve the proposal to widen their road.
The residents vehemently opposed the proposal and offered seven different plans to avoid the proposed widening of the road up to 65 ft. The main alternative they suggested was development of Madhura Nagar road, which would be convenient for traffic coming from Nunna, Nuzvid, Payakapuram and Vambay Colony.
They said nearly 60,000 people from Vambay colony and other areas go to Autonagar daily, and Madhuranagar road would be more convenient to them. The Corporation need not spend any additional money as it was already constructing two bridges and developing the Madhuranagar road from Bandar road to Vambay colony.
The residents also suggested that extension of present road from drain to drain would facilitate free movement of traffic. Apart from this, three major roads -- G.S. Raju road, C. K. Reddy road and Vambay colony road being developed could be used to facilitate traffic diversion as they directly connect to railway track road.
‘May cause jam’
The residents recalled that they surrendered their properties for the laying of Bhagat Singh road connecting Budameru bridge, and some of them had not been paid compensation even now for the land acquired in the 80s. More so, if the Bhagat Singh road was widened without constructing a second bridge across Budameru, it would result in traffic jam as the existing bridge was not wide enough and would turn out to be a bottleneck. The 100-ft road (BRTS road) from Gandhinagar to Madhuranagar and Machavaram road acts as an inner ring road to Satyanarayanapuram, Lakhsmi Nagar and other residential areas, and hence there was no need for the widening of Bhagat Singh road as the traffic coming from Nunna, Payakapuram, UDA colony, Kundavari Kandrika, Pathapadu, Rajivnagar and Ajit Singh Nagar could be diverted to 100-ft road through C.K. Reddy road, they said.