Refurbished Kakinada beach beckons visitors

A host of facilities has been developed under ‘Bharat Darshan’ scheme

All decked up: The NTR Beach near Kakinada sports a new look with the facelift being given under the Central government’s Bharat Darshana scheme.

The NTR Beach at Vakalapudi on city outskirts has now got a complete facelift with state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities, and has become one of the major sources of revenue for the government.

A sum of ₹45.66 crore was spent on the beach’s development under the ‘Bharat Darshan’ scheme with which tourist attractions such as water fountains, laser shows, footbridge made of transparent glass, amphitheatre and conference hall have been built.Interestingly, East Godavari is the only district that utilised 100% funds allocated under the scheme, and developed six other tourist spots along with the beach.

Food court

“Barring minor works such as infrastructure for laser shows, all other works have been completed and the new premises will be formally inaugurated next month,” G. Bheema Shankaram, Regional Director of the Tourism Department, told The Hindu . A private player has already come forward to pay annual lease of ₹85 lakh to set up food courts in the renovated beach along with using the conference hall. “The idea is to hand over the maintenance to a private agency,” says the official, adding that a series of events are on the cards at the beach.

The department has also developed boating facility at Pasarlapudi and lighting facility at the Buddhist site at Adurru, constructed a cafteria near the Kotipalli temple and arranged jetty facility to Hope Island, besides improving amenities at the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary.

Ambitious plans

“Works of waterfront development at Surasani Yanam are in progress and are expected to be completed in a few weeks. After the Kakinada beach, we have spent higher sum of ₹8.5 crore on developing facilities at Coringa,” said Mr. Bheema Shankaram. In all, a sum of ₹69.66 crore is being spent on works under ‘Bharat Darshan’ and the minor works in pending at different sites are expected to be completed by the end of June.

“There is scope for getting funds to the tune of ₹20 crore towards tourism development and we are chalking out plans to avail the amount to develop the remaining tourist spots in the district,” he said.