WORK APACE: Water being pumped out from pits in front of a shopping complex on Bandar Road in Vijayawada. — PHOTO: RAJU V.

VIJAYAWADA: Delay in completion of several works on Bandar Road is testing the patience of vehicle users and pedestrians, not to talk of traders whose businesses are taking a toll due to unwelcome surroundings in front of their premises.

As against the speed with which the authorities of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) pulled down the structures on both sides of the road about a year ago, the work relating to construction of storm water drains from Municipal Guest House to Benz Circle (the two reaches where the road has been widened) is moving at a snail's pace.

VMC officials say that the work relating to storm water drains in both reaches of the road is almost complete, except for a few gaps in between. Except in respect of five properties, where the owners have either sought time or the properties themselves have not been acquired, the drains have been constructed from end to end.

But even as they maintain that storm water drains will be completed in a week or so, they also point to the new work that is waiting to be commenced: laying of water supply lines and underground drainage for the convenience of people residing in several colonies on both sides of the road.

Tenders finalised

VMC Commissioner Natarajan Gulzar says that the two projects can be completed in a month from now but the sprucing up of the road and preparing it for regular usage by vehicle users depends on the Roads & Buildings Department, which has to begin the work of black-topping of widened stretches of the road. This may take three to four months, he opines.

The R&B officials finalised the tenders for laying of road from Police Control Room to Benz Circle at a cost of Rs.6 crores and referred them to the commissionerate of tenders. The clearance for the tender is expected in a week from now, according to R&B officials.

Mr. Gulzar says that the water supply lines will also be laid from the Police Control Room to Raghavaiah Park, the first reach where road has not been widened. He indicates that a conciliatory solution is on the cards to convince the owners of first reach to agree to the widening of the road "if not to 100 feet but to a few feet less."

The work relating to water supply lines and underground drainage would be taken up simultaneously. As the R&B department will also have to do a lot of digging before black topping the road, the VMC will use this digging to lay water lines and underground drainage to minimise the inconvenience to roadusers.

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