As the day temperature soars, all roads lead to Vakalapudi beach where visitors find hardly any facilities. Youngsters arrive on motorcycles and spend a couple of hours along with their friends. A few families too join the crowd only on the weekends and public holidays.
Thanks to the two beach festivals conducted by the department of tourism in the last two years, the beach is now considered to be one of the visiting places here. Even as the extent of seashore has increased and ships being anchored at the port are visible to the public from the beach, the officials have not focused much on developing the beach as a tourist spot. As a result, no public transport is available to the beach which is about 10 km from the city and located adjacent to the industrial area.
Joyride“It is a joyride for us. It is great riding motorbikes on this sandy stretch and spend long hours in the water,” says N. Karthik, an engineering student from Sasikanth Nagar. A few petty vendors sell ice-creams and roasted peanuts and a couple of photographers offer instant photographs along the seashore.
“My children insist on visiting the beach on weekends. We can’t spend more than an hour here, as we can’t stay till late in the evening,” says B.V. Kishore, an executive in an advertisement agency. Although police patrolling is a regular affair on the beach it has not diminished security fears among the families which visit the beach. “We can’t buy packaged drinking water and the toilet facility is not there,” Mr. Kishore points out.
