If Kondagattu bus tragedy left several families scarred and in despair, scores of shop owners on the foothills of the pilgrim spot are struggling for survival.
With the closure of the ghat road for RTC buses and other heavy vehicles, the number of people visiting the shops for purchase of various goods has drastically come down. There are close to 100 vendors selling prayer material and other articles at the foothills of the temple.
The rows of shops begin where the bus had plunged into the gorge on September 11 last year. “From that day, our daily business collection also took a nosedive. We don’t even sell one-tenth of what we used to before the accident,” says Yella Reddy who has been running his shop at the temple foothills for the past one decade.
For him and several others, the shops were their sole means of their livelihood. Women and children used to be their main customers. The accident dealt a big blow to their business.
“With bus services on the ghat road halted, no one is coming to our shops. On some days, we don’t even get a single customer,” says Lingamma, a grocery shop owner. They contend that the closure of the road is not the solution to avert accidents. “If there is a mishap on the Tirumala hills and Srisailam ghat road, will the authorities close that route too,” asked Ch. Bakkaiah, a coconut vendor.
The authorities can redesign, level and widen the ghat road, argue the shop owners, saying that they are even ready to donate their lands for the purpose.
