Kakinada People Suffer as Contractor Stops Road Works

Kakinada: The new flyover between Ramaraopeta and Military Road in Kakinada has no service roads yet. As is, the Railways and Roads and Building department took long years and finally completed the bridge last year.

But the contractor stopped laying service roads to the site, demanding payment of pending bills.

Since then, people have submitted representations to the Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) to lay the service roads immediately. The KMC maintains that building the service roads is the responsibility of the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department.

R&B officials say nearly Rs 2.50 crore are to be paid to the contractor, who is unwilling to develop the service roads without clearance of dues.

In the interim, people are complaining that though KMC has received their petitions regarding the service roads, the corporation has not sent a letter to the R&B department regarding the urgency in completing the roads on either side of the flyover.

Corporation superintendent engineer P. Kameswara Rao has made it clear that he has reminded the R&B officials many times about the issue.

BJP senior leader Duvvuri Subrahmanyam has stepped in with a memorandum to Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister P. Narayana to take steps for completion of the bridge immediately. The BJP leader pointed out that lack of service roads is causing many difficulties for residents and commuters.

Social activist and resident of the area D.N. Ramesh, expressed his anger at R&B officials. He pointed out that leave alone the contractor, the government has not paid any compensation after acquiring their land for building the flyover.

Residents have approached the court, which has directed the district administration and also the state government not to move forward with the work without paying compensation to persons whose lands have been acquired.

However, the contractor completed the flyover despite the court order. “When the contractor can complete the flyover, why cannot the service roads also be completed,” Ramesh asked.