The idyllic location of Vivekananda Nagar resembles a quaint countryside picture as you drive into the lanes surrounded by the green canopy of Eastern Ghats.
It is only after you cross the small winding roads peppered with patches of land that tall buildings and construction sites appear.
For the scores of people living amidst the pollution and crowd of the city, Vivekananda Nagar may seem like a dream locality. Nestled between Sagar Nagar and Yendada, the locality is one of the upcoming areas, which shares its boundaries with the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.
For the villagers living in the neighbourhood, the changing face of Vivekananda Nagar is nothing less than a miracle. “This area used to be a thickly forested place with a few farmlands. In fact, many years ago there used to be a canal running through the place which was full of birds and snakes. To think that this place has transformed so much is unimaginable!” says 76-year-old S. Appalaraju, who has been living there from the past several decades.
Many like Appalaraju who are the residents of the area since the 1950s recall that the colony did not have a single concrete structure and had few thatched houses and patches of paddy fields.
In course of time farmers began to sell their lands at throwaway prices. The place still has a handful of individual houses left. Residents of the houses recount tales of summer days when herds of deer would descend down from the bordering hills of Eastern Ghats to drink water in the vessels kept outside their homes. In the past two to three years, at least 20 new apartments have come up here with many more in various stages of construction. For D. Shanti Sree, the decision to move into a three-bedroom apartment at Vivekananda Nagar this year was certainly not a hard one. After living in the densely-packed locality of CBM Compound for several years, the change brought in a welcome relief. “There was so much silence here that we could hear even a faint sound coming from far-off distance. In fact, during the night the sounds of birds and animals from the zoo nearby are quite pronounced. We can never dream of such a space in the city,” said Shanti, who is the president of Potluri Resid Homes Association.
Real estate boom
A bit distant and yet easily accessible from the main parts of the city, Vivekananda Nagar is a picture of sustainable development. The real estate business of the locality saw a boom in the past two years. Till two years back, the per-square-feet rate was Rs 1,900 and within a span of two years it has touched Rs 2,600 at Vivekananda Nagar.
“Back in 2004, there were no takers for any flat here. But rising cost of real estate has come as a boon for the locality. While in other areas in the city, owning a spacious apartment has become almost unaffordable for a middle-class family, this location is a great option. Its proximity to the National Highway has given further fillip to the rapid real estate development,” said S. Krishna Kumar, a business man and a resident of the place. The Pharma City and IT SEZs have spurred demand for apartments in the locality, he added. Several real estate developers are now eyeing the vacant plots in the locality.
Till the time the locality gets a complete facelift, the residents can enjoy a perfect balance of natural beauty and development.
