The worn out roads in the city that has been the bone of contention for many, ranging from the residents to the political opponents, may look better by the end of the year, if the plan put forward by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) sets rolling in the next couple of months.
In an exclusive chat with The Hindu, GVMC Commissioner G. Lakshmisha said that about 7,000 potholes and the roads that need to be re-topped with bitumen also have been identified in the GVMC limits.
The corporation has divided the issue of roads into three segments – short term, medium term and long term.
“The 7,000 potholes that we are talking of are earmarked under the short and medium goals. These will be addressed within the next couple of months,” he said.
Coming to re-topping or relaying of roads, Mr. Lakshmisha said that the total extent of BT and CC road under GVMC is around 2,280 km and of which around 1,050 falls under the BT category.
“We have seen that around 20% of BT roads needs to be re-topped and a plan is ready under the Ward Development Project,” he said.
According to him, this year the GVMC could garner about ₹100 crore excess revenue and it is expected to do better in the next financial year. “This should give us the leverage to execute the plan and see that the roads are taken care of,” he said.
The main issue that the corporation has been facing is the reluctance of the contractors to take up the work.
But Mr. Lakshmisha expressed confidence that the GVMC will be able to convince them in the next few weeks and the works would begin. “We have already started to release some funds and the contractors are coming back to our fold. It is not long before we can get going with all the work,” he said.
‘No water issues’
Sounding confident, the GVMC Commissioner said that the water levels in the reservoirs are good and the city would not face any water crisis this summer.
“But we are working towards a permanent solution and if things fall in place, then the city and now the district would never face any water issue,” he said.
Explaining it, he said, “Now we are getting most of our water, which is around 11 tmc ft, from Yeleswaram open canal. But due to theft and evaporation, we are receiving only 6 to 7 tmc ft of water. But once the Polavaram left canal gets operational, we have a dedicated pipeline to deliver 11 tmc ft intact to the city. The project cost is around ₹4,000 crore and is also part of the Union Government’s Jal jeevan Mission,” he said.
‘Coffee with Corporators’
Speaking about his innovative initiative ‘Coffee with Corporators’ he said that it is a platform to get closer to the people’s representatives. “At times it is seen that corporators do not come out openly in the council meet. But at this programme, they do open up, irrespective of their political affiliations. That is how we come to understand various issues in the ward levels and again we have segregated them into categories such as short, medium and long term,” he said.
“Once the Polavaram left canal gets operational, we will have a dedicated pipeline to deliver 11 tmc ft intact to the city”G. LakshmishaGVMC Commissioner
When it comes to short term, we address issues such as water leakage or drainage clogging issues, in medium term we deal with issues such as construction of drainage or erecting an electric pole and in the long term we talk of flyovers, underpasses or relaying of roads, said Mr. Lakshmisha.
