Visakhapatnam: The Visakha Valley road-widening project from National Highway-16 to Vizag-Bheemili Beach Road has received the stage-1 forest clearance, eliciting a sigh of relief from the Visakha Valley School students and their parents. They had been pushing for a proper road for some time now. However, this is just the beginning as there is a lengthy procedure for obtaining approval from the forest department.
Once an application is submitted to the district forest officer, it will be scrutinised by the Conservator of Forests who gives a recommendation to the nodal officer, who in turn scrutinises it and gives his remarks and suggestions to the Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF). Depending on the size of forest land, the CCF sends the proposal to the regional CCF for further inspection. After a thorough examination by the state advisory group, the state government will issue formal orders on up to 20 hectares of land.
Over and above that, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF) shall provide the final approval based on the state government’s compliance report. According to the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda), an online application was made to construct a 1.6-km long, 40-feet road near Visakha Valley School, with a budget of '3 crore. The clearance is still awaited.
“The Visakha Valley road-widening project is one of the 10-15 proposals submitted to the forest department. It is not easy to get forest clearance in urban areas. We have been trying to get approval for many years,” a Vuda official said. Contradicting his remarks, Visakhapatnam divisional forest officer Alan Chong Teron said that the stage-1 forest clearance has been given as soon as they received the online proposal, along with self-uploaded documents. As the project is below 5 hectares, the state government shall take the final decision.
The Visakha Valley road from National Highway-16 to Vizag-Bheemili Beach Road falls under Seetakonda Reserve Forest. Vuda has proposed to widen the road a few years back to check the traffic inflow, particularly during the school timings. The city traffic police also stressed the need to widen the road. The recently-formed Visakha Valley School Parents’ Association has been demanding a 60-feet road here as they experience traffic problems daily.
TSK Arun Kumar, a member of the ad-hoc committee, said that every day more than 150 cars, 300 bikes, 80 autos and 14 school buses travel twice on this road to pick up and drop the children at the school. Also, the route is risky as there is debris on one side of the road to support a 16-feet-high compound wall of the school. The parents have demanded that the school management clear the debris several times. But there was no response from them, said a parent.
