Former district Collector S.A.M. Rizvi, in a letter to the R & B Department Principal Secretary S.P. Singh, said the National Highways Authority of India had goofed up the alignment of NH-5 bypass via Gundugolanu Village to Vijayawada and that ‘extreme caution” should be taken in fixing it.
This came to light after Mylavaram MLA Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao sought information about the alignment of NH-5 bypass that was being laid in the wake of several allegations by villagers.
Vijayawada RDO S. Venkata Rao sent to the MLA a copy of the letter written by the former Collector to the Principal Secretary. According to the letter, a survey by the Revenue Department exposed lacunae in the alignment of the bypass. The Collector’s letter said “During the field work (of the survey) several discrepancies were noticed in alignment with reference to the 3A notification in Gollapudi Village (limits)”.
Mr. Rizvi said in the letter that the NHAI should proceed with extreme caution “while fixing the alignment” as the land involved was very expensive. The former Collector wrote, “It is felt that at least now NHAI should do a thorough job in fixing the alignment without giving scope for errors. It is requested to take up the matter at the higher level, so that senior level NHAI officials are involved in the alignment fixation. At the same time responsibility may be fixed on the persons who are involved in alignment errors noticed.”
