Pawan Kalyan Vows to Link Island Villages With Krishna River Bridge

Vijayawada: Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan has announced that the long-pending dream of connecting Etimoga and Edurumondi island villages across the Krishna river will soon be a reality with the construction of a high-level bridge.

Speaking at a review meeting at his camp office in Mangalagiri on Wednesday, the deputy chief minister said funds for the project would be mobilised through the state government and the SASCI scheme. “The government is determined to complete the Etimoga–Edurumondi high-level bridge within the stipulated time-frame.”

Nabard has already sanctioned ₹109 crore for the project but, due to design changes, the costs may increase by about ₹60 crore, he noted.

The meeting, attended by Machilipatnam MP Vallabhaneni Balashouri, Avanigadda MLA Mandali Buddha Prasad, senior officials from various departments and Krishna district collector Balaji, reviewed crop loss assessments and development works in the cyclone-hit areas of the Avanigadda constituency.

Kalyan directed the officials to expedite the restoration of the outfall sluices in the Avanigadda region with support from the central government. He criticised the previous government’s “negligence”, which “rendered the sluices non-functional,” leading to the inundation of nearly 5,000 acres in Nagayalanka and Koduru mandals.

The restoration now requires ₹50 crore. Allocations would be made from the national disaster management fund to reconstruct all seven sluices, he said.

Expressing concern over the plight of tenant farmers affected by the Montha cyclone, Pawan Kalyan said about 60,000 tenant farmers in Krishna district held crop cultivating rights cards, while many others remained unregistered. He urged officials to ensure fair compensation to every tenant farmer without delay.

Referring to connectivity issues, the Deputy Chief Minister said `13.88 crore had been sanctioned under the Panchayat Raj department for the Edurumondi–Gollamanda road, but the project has been held up awaiting forest department clearance. He asked forest officials and the district administration to jointly inspect the affected stretches and resolve pending approvals.

The Deputy CM also asked the forest department to reconsider the fee being collected from pilgrims visiting the sacred Hamsaladeevi confluence, as the matter concerns religious sentiments and should be handled sensitively.