VIJAYAWADA: People in the low-lying areas of Vijayawada will no longer have to live under the threat of inundation during monsoon or floods with the construction of a 1.5-km-long flood control retaining wall from Koti Nagara to Kanaka Durga Varadhi is nearing completion. The works are expected to be completed six months ahead of schedule. The officials are gearing up for the inauguration of the retaining wall by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the first week of August.
The Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone for the wall on March 31 last year and the project was taken up at an estimated cost of `125 crore. The project will provide relief to 31,000 denizens residing in Krishna Lanka, Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, Ranigarithota, Balaji Nagar, Dwaraka Nagar, Bhramaramba Nagar and other habitations alongside the river. The 8.9-metre-high and three-foot-wide wall will be able to protect the areas against floodwaters gushing at 12,000 cusecs.
For years it was a routine affair for around 2,500 residents of Tarakaramanagar, Bhupesh Gupta Nagar and Randev Nagar to relocate themselves to rehabilitation centres arranged by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium following floods in the Krishna during monsoon.
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. The wall works began soon after the stone-laying. Even though the construction was in progress last August and September, there was no inundation of the low-lying areas despite floodwater getting released at 8 lakh cusecs, the officials said.
G Bhagya Lakshmi, a resident of Bhupesh Gupta Nagar, said every year during monsoon and floods she and her family had to relocate to a shelter. But this year, the flood protection retaining wall has provided a permanent solution to the problem, she said.
Another resident B Sarojini said that for the last two years during the floods to the Krishna River officials shifted them to the rehabilitation centres but they couldn’t protect their valuables and livestock.
“This season, the barrage has not received heavy inflows so far. We are expecting the retaining wall will prevent our area from getting inundated,” she said.