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Vi(za)gnettes
Inception of VUDA
A major share of credit for the rapid development and beautification of the city should go to the Visakhapatnam Urban Development (VUDA) as this body was primarily responsible for planning and developing the city. Today, the institution has become a
household name and almost everybody knows where it is located but only a few would be aware of its history.
VUDA made its modest beginning in 1962, when it was called the Town Planning Trust (TPT). The office was housed in a rented building opposite the present fishing harbour and near to the Town Hall Club.
Y. Guru Reddy was its founder chairman but substantial work was done by his successor G. Ranga Reddy who was also the architect of the master plan of Visakha Mahanagar.
Immediately upon formation, TPT put to an end to the haphazard growth of the city. With a modest fund of Rs.63 crores from the government, TPT embarked on housing projects and developmental activities like clearing slums from 1963. In 1978 TPT was renamed as VUDA.
VUDA was responsible for the housing project for the Burma repatriates at Madhavadhara and townships at Yendada, Vepagunta and Gajuwaka. VUDA also developed colonies at Kirlampudi, East Point Colony, Pithapuram and Seethammadhara. (Contr
ibuted by Dr. Ch. Mutyalayya Naidu).
Helpful District Collector
Payakaraopeta, a small town located on the edge of Visakhapatnam district was identified as the constituency for the scheduled castes since long. It was a sleepy town with high rate of illiteracy.
Due to the efforts of the then minister Sagi Suryanarayana Raju, the only local high school was upgraded to a higher secondary school with all facilities like labs and a library. It remained as a higher secondary school for long till the school committee along with the local MLA, Maruthi Adeyya, approached the District Collector C. Arjuna Rao in 1975 for the establishment of a junior college.
After a patient hearing, the Collector called up the higher education authorities concerned in Hyderabad and got the approval. He even reduced the corpus fund to Rs.1 lakh, which was otherwise Rs.5 lakhs and was mandatory for the committee to contribute.
Local industrialist Samayamanthula Reddy after whose name the college was named, contributed liberally to the building and corpus funds. For the balance funds Arjuna Rao called up the managing director of Thandava Sugars to sanction the amount from the factory’s common fund. All these were done from his room over phone in a couple of hours in the presence of the representatives.
On completion of the construction, the college was inaugurated by the then Education Minister Bhattam Sriramamurthi. Sagi Seetharamaraju, Chairman Zilla Parishad, presided over the meeting. Dasarathi, writer and chairman of AP State Literary Wing, and Jamuna, actress, were also present at the inaugural function. (Contributed by B.V. Ramamurty).
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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