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Writer's picturenewsmediasm

CM to launch 1.5-km flood safety wall soon

By Our Special Correspondent


With the completion of the 1.5 km long flood control wall from Koti Nagara to Kanakadurga Bridge, the people of the low lying areas of Vijayawada will no longer have to live with the threat of floods during monsoons or floods.

They want to complete the work six months ahead of the scheduled deadline. Officials are making preparations for the inauguration of the retaining wall at the hands of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the first week of August.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of this wall on March 31 last year and the project was taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.125 crore.

The project will provide relief to 31,000 displaced people living in Krishna Lanka, Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, Ranigarithota, Balaji Nagar, Dwarka Nagar, Bhramaramba Nagar and other habitations along the river.

This wall, 8.9 meters high and three feet wide, can protect areas from 12,000 cusecs of flood water.

Over the years, it has become routine for around 2,500 residents of Tarakaramanagar, Bhupesh Gupta Nagar and Ramdev Nagar to shift themselves to the rehabilitation centers set up by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium as the Krishna River floods during the monsoons.

They also bore the brunt of valuables and household items getting washed away. After inspecting the flood-affected localities in 2019, the Chief Minister directed the officials to come up with a permanent solution to the long-pending problem of the residents.

As soon as the foundation stone was laid, the wall work started. Officials said that even though 8 lakh cusecs of flood water was released last August and September, the low-lying areas were not inundated.

G Bhagya Lakshmi, a resident of Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, said she and her family had to relocate to the shelter every year during monsoons and floods. But this year the flood protection wall has given a permanent solution to the problem, she said.

Another resident, B Sarojini, said that during the floods in the Krishna River for the past two years, the authorities shifted them to resettlement centers but could not save their valuables and cattle.

"The barrage has not received huge inflows so far this season. We hope that the retaining wall will prevent our area from being inundated,” she said.

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