ONGOLE: The flyover constructed on the four-lane Chennai-Kolkata NH 5 to cross Kurnool road in Ongole town limits has at last been completed. Union Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways K.H. Muniyappa will inaugurate the bridge here on April 13 to fulfil the long-felt need of Ongole town to ease congestion on Kurnool road.

However, the flyover created more problems than it has solved. It has literally cut off communications between two busy habitations, causing hardship to nearly 40,000 people living in Sujatanagar, Sonia Gandhi Colony, Samatanagar, Ramaiahnagar, Sambasivanagar, police quarters and Revenue Colony lying on the western side of the flyover. These people used to cross the bypass road to come into the town through Anjaiah road.

The approach road to the flyover stood between Sujatanagar and Anjaiah road choking the communications. Consequently, the commuters from Sujatanagar had to go either to Mangamur road on the south or Kurnool road on the north to come back to Anjaiah road travelling to and fro an additional distance of one kilometre. All the commuters - pedestrians, cyclists, scooterists, auto-rickshaws etc - coming from western side have to undergo this hardship henceforth.

Ongole Town Development Committee, in a memorandum to MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy explained this problem in detail. It pointed out that the people had opposed construction of four-lane through town limits and suggested that a second bypass road should be constructed away from town limits but in vain.

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