VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to set up three more night shelters at different places across the city taking the total number of shelters to seven. Of the three shelters, two will be temporary and one will be a permanent one and cater to only women.
"The localities for the proposed new shelters have been identified by the VMC officials and construction of the same will commence once the tenders are finalised," said project officer Sridhar.
Elaborating on the project, he said "We identified a place near Rajiv Gandhi Park and one more at the Durga Ghat in Karmala Bhavan for the night shelters. The temporary ones will be ready by the end of February. A permanent night shelter will come up at Balaji Nagar where the vacant Karmal Bhavan was there and will be modified accordingly."
He also said that the construction of the shelters will not be a time-consuming process as the officials concerned have opted to replicate the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) model. In Hyderabad, the temporary shelters are built with a simple rooftop, a tiled-floor base and compound wall here. The same will be replicated here too.
According to the norms and guidelines of the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), a provision should be made for one permanent community shelter for every one lakh persons. On that note, considering the population of Vijayawada, more than eleven night shelters are needed according to the 2011 census. However, the numbers can be jacked based on the population surveys later on.
When asked about the reasons for failing to adhere to the guidelines of NULM, the project officer cited dearth of land and funds. Albeit, he added that the VMC chief mulling all possible ways to create the needed number of night shelters and a resolution has been submitted to the State-level night shelter monitoring committee.