VIJAYAWADA: Going the extra mile, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh went around the city on his two-wheeler from midnight to early hours of Sunday. He inspected ongoing works and interacted with the sanitation workers.
The objective behind Prasanna Venkatesh’s intense night inspection was to get first-hand experience of the difficulties being faced by the public in the city like lack of street lights, pothole ridden roads, stinking drains and foul smell emanating from the garbage heaps and many more.
Venkatesh began his inspection from the newly developed Eat Street near IGMC Stadium at around 12 am. The inspection continued till 3:15 am. He suggested the officials concerned to improve the density of shade grass at the seating plaza to enhance greenery and place FRP toys besides beautifying the railway wall with murals.
After observing the heaps of wastes clogging the drains adjacent to Polyclinic Road leading to breeding of mosquitoes, Venkatesh instructed the public health department officials to verify the root cause and engage additional workers to double anti-larval operations, oil balls and fogging activity. Noticing a fallen iron fencing adjacent to the national highway, the municipal commissioner instructed the officials to carry out repairs to the fence and replace broken lights in the ‘green belt park’ along the West side of NH-5.
At Mahanadu Road, the civic body chief asked the officials to prevent illegal parking of heavy vehicles on the roadside by improving the surveillance, which is interlinked with the traffic police, who penalise the violators by issuing challans. In an interaction with night sanitation workers at BRTS Road, Venkatesh commended the efforts of the sanitation officials and workers in their efforts to maintain the city clean.
He also discussed the recent initiative of deploying night sanitation workers for cleaning popular walking areas to facilitate morning walkers on the road. After observing that several roads and footpaths were encroached by the shopkeepers, the civic body chief directed the town planning department officials to conduct a special drive and make the footpaths available for pedestrians.
At Besant Road, he observed the road was blocked by the vehicles supplying sea food to the market, he interacted with the wholesale dealers and assured them of identifying a suitable location for them to relocate the marker to Ajith Singh Nagar or Vambay Colony.