Visakhapatnam: Yarada Beach, one of the most beautiful ones in Vizag city, draws visitors round the year. The place, however, lacks basic infrastructure and amenities like road connectivity and shady places for tourists to relax. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) and local bodies have proposed to develop the beach but nothing has done so far. Visitors to the beach have been expressing disappo-intment over the bad conditions of the approach road to the beach, the poor sanitation and other facilities.
The beach is about 18 km from Vizag city located amid rocky hills. There are attractive banana and coconut plantations around it. Due to the apathy of authorities, however, the condition of the 5 km long approach road to the beach on Dolphin’s Nose is pathetic with potholes, damaged sidewalls (parapet walls) and full of debris at various places. The road is a death trap for motorists at night since it does not have proper street lights.
The RK Beach and Rushikonda Beach in Vizag too have turned from bad to worse because of coas-tal erosion and marine pollution. Yarada Beach is more beautiful and att-racts more tourists though it lacks basic requirements such as coffee shop, shade place and other facilities, says Anil Kumar P., a resident of MVP Colony area in Vizag city. The Tourism Depart-ment, while trying to promote Vizag citing its be-aches and hills, it has failed to develop Yarada, Appikonda and other beaches in the city. Besides, the poor road-connectivity, public transport to the beaches, too, is missing. There are not many buses going to the places and autorickshaws are hard to find and expensive.
There is hardly any infrastructure such as recreation, toilets and drinking water facilities, said Viswanath V., a student of Andhra University. Sources said that APTDC and VUDA have been chalking out plans to develop Yarada and Appikonda beaches for the past one year. However, so far no step has been taken to repair the approach roads and create facilities. Yarada and Appikonda beaches are located on the outskirts of the city. Visitors are forced to return from these places before sunset because of the fear of eve-teasing, snatching and other criminal incidents.
