VIJAYAWADA: Despite being one of the State’s key urban centres, Vijayawada continues to suffer from the same civic nightmare year after year - flooded roads and overflowing drains.
Even a short spell of rain turns several city roads into pools of stagnant water, exposing the glaring negligence of both public representatives, like MPs, MLAs, and the administration, including the Commissioner and Collector.
Over the decades, Vijayawada citizens have been facing these severe problems, and sometimes, even people have been killed by falling into the drainage.
There is still no change, and it seems that no one cares about addressing and resolving this persistent problem.
The corporation had identified 43 waterlogging and stagnation-prone points across the city and deployed Monsoon Response Teams to handle emergencies temporarily.
However, citizens say these measures can’t address the severity and ask for long-term solutions.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) claims to have an extensive drainage network covering 1,184.20 km, including 826 km of minor drains, 82.54 km of major drains, and 275.42 km of medium drains. Despite these figures, the system’s inefficiency is evident. Notably, many drains, including UGD (Underground Drainage), were built many years ago, intending to address the needs of that time.
Now, the city has totally changed, and the population has been increasing day by day. Although the government has not been undertaking any suitable measures to address the problems.
“Every year, the situation is the same. Taxes are collected regularly, but where is the development?” asked S Nethaji, a resident of Giripuram in Vijayawada. He further added that the road from Vijayawada court to Besant road is submerged when a little spell lashes out. “The common public suffers a lot,” he said.
“During the rain, roads resemble a lake. We can’t identify whether it is a road or drainage. At this time, motorists are worst affected, with vehicles moving at a snail’s pace and many breaking down in the flooded stretches. Every year, they clean drains just before the rains and call it preparedness. But the root problem, lack of proper gradient and outdated stormwater drains, is never addressed,” said B Srija, a resident of Eluru Road.
She further explained that Vijayawada’s drainage system, designed decades ago, cannot handle the increased rainfall and urban expansion of today. Unplanned construction, encroachments on drains, and poor maintenance further aggravate the problem. Despite repeated assurances, there has been no major drainage modernization project initiated in recent years.
Meanwhile, citizens are demanding a comprehensive master plan to revamp the city’s stormwater drainage system, ensure regular maintenance, and introduce accountability mechanisms.
