The city’s iconic Ashoka Pillar, Potti Sri Ramulu Statue and the foot overbridge (FOB) at the Kanakadugra temple will have to make way for the proposed flyover at the temple.
Once work commences on the flyover, these structures will have to be relocated and Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is racking its brains on where they can be placed.
The civic authority also has the task of shifting the existing underground water pipelines in the locality and widen the intersections. Officials say this will cost about Rs.23 crore, which would be part of the entire project cost.
Of the Rs.23 crore, nearly Rs.18 crore would be spent on shifting water pipelines and the rest on widening the junctions and other road works.
“As of now, we have not decided where the Ashoka Pillar and Potti Sri Ramulu statue will be shifted. We will discussed that with corporators during the council meeting,” said a senior official.
In addition, VMC is also working on improving road space on alternate roads to handle the extra traffic which would be diverted through the Gollapudi ‘Y’ junction to Ramavarappadu to avoid congestion due to the flyover works.
Officials are planning to divert the traffic bound for Kolkata via Ibrahimpatnam, G Konduru, Mylavaram and Hanuman Junction. Similarly, vehicles bound for Vijayawada would be diverted from the Gollapudi ‘Y’ junction to Ramavarapadu by two routes.
While traffic on one route would be diverted via the Sitara Junction, VUDA bypass, Pipula road, Singhnagar, Kedareswarpeta and BRTS road, the other route would be via Tunnel road, Kedareswarpeta, BRTS road and Ramavarapadu.
However, the road on these two routes is narrow and needs to be widened. The road near RTC workshop, Errakatta road, K.T. Road has to be widened too and this requires land acquisition. All these works would cost the corporation about Rs.16 crore. The State Government has promised to sanction the amount, he added.
The structures will be relocated to make way for the proposed Indrakeeadri flyover
