Hyderabad: The six new Pushkar ghats in Pebbair mandal of Mahbubnagar district on the banks of River Krishna have poor connectivity to the National Highway 44. Besides that, the Rs 84.5-lakh Pushkar ghat at Muslaipally in Makthal mandal was submerged in the backwaters of the Jurala project. Roads leading to the ghat have been damaged too. Mahbubnagar district has 17 Pushkar ghats and the government has proposed to build 35 more in view of the expected heavy rush for the Krishna Pushkarams from August 12 to 24.
The Rs 96-lakh Yaparla ghat is located 25 km from the national highway. The Rs 21-lakh Gummadam ghat and the Rs 1.2 crore Tippaipally ghat are nearly 20 km away. The other three ghats — Rampuram (Rs 87 lakh), Munagaman Dinne (Rs 3 crore) and Budidapad (Rs 60 lakh) — are located between 4 and 12 km away from the national highway to Bengaluru. Single-lane roads are being built to these ghats, and their conditions are poor. While this is so, the National Highway Authority of India on Sunday halted work on some proposed service roads leading to the ghats.
The NHAI says state governments do not have the jurisdiction to develop service roads connecting to a national highway. Government roads and buildings officials have approached the NHAI to sort out the matter. Officials have begun work on a 3-km service road to Beechpally from Yerravelli crossroads costing about Rs 2.2 crore. R&B chief engineer Ravinder Rao who visited the Pushkar ghats in Atmakur mandal has directed officials to speed up works at Pushkar ghats and roads.
Parking lots have not yet been built at these ghats, for which Rs 3.5 crore had been released. The Rangapur ghat will have large parking lot costing Rs 2.81 crore. Works on these ghats had to be completed by July 15 but much work is still pending — 10 days past deadline. The Brahmana Seva Samiti said 2,000 priests would be deployed at the 52 pushkar ghats in the district to perform special pujas. Mahbubnagar district samiti president Gopala Krishna said all the priests and Veda pandits would be provided accommodation and food at the riverside temples.
