Kakinada: The Suspension Glass Bridge at Kakinada Beach is getting ready for inauguration. The state government has designed the bridge for crossing the salt creek to go to the beach as part of the tourism promotion scheme. It is the first glass bridge in the country. The 45m long bridge has been constructed at a cost of Rs 2.07 crore and is a purely pedestrian bridge.
The bridge has been designed by engineering experts from Indore. Officials are making efforts to get the bridge inaugurated on September 24 by the Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu. When tourists or people go on the bridge, they can experience its shaking. When pedestrians walk on the bridge, they will get a feeling of walking on water due to the reflection of water on the glass. District Collector Karthikeya Misra was closely monitoring the bridge works from time to time and paying special attention, said officials.
The AP Tourism executive engineer S Srinivasa Rao said that the bridge’s shape was on the lines of ‘Howrah Bridge’ and it would shake when pedestrians walked on it. He said that nearly 200 visitors could stand on the bridge at once as it has been constructed with high quality and toughened glass material. He said that it would become a one of the centres of attraction in Kakinada Beach and more tourists would flock to it.
According to sources, Kakinada Beach is being developed to international standards for attracting international tourists. The Tourism Department has constructed and is running Haritha Resorts’ near Kakinada beach to provide guest houses and many more resorts have been planned near the beach. Already a bridge has been built to go to the beach. However, the beach development works are yet to be completed. Sources said that some of the constructions were to be inaugurated at the end of August by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu but were postponed due to the demise of Telugu Desam leader Nandamuri Harikrishna.
