Vijayawada: 35 water kiosks to quench thirst in city

Vijayawada (NTR district) : In view of blazing sun and torrid heat waves, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has set up water kiosks (Chalivendram) across the city to quench the thirst of citizens, visitors as well as the general public. The VMC authorities set up water kiosks at 35 locations in the city to provide drinking water facilities to the citizens. Mainly, these kiosks are made available at crowded places and important centres.

It should be noted that Vijayawada city is witnessing record level of high temperatures for the past one week, making people to suffer with excessive sweating and dehydration. Some people also hit by sunstroke. 43 degree Celsius was registered on Monday.

Considering the situation, the VMC chalked out a plan for setting up of water kiosks to provide water to people. The officials arranged 35 water kiosks in three circles across the city, including 13 kiosks in the jurisdiction of Circle-1, six in Circle-2 limits and the remaining in the limits of Circle -3. Kummaripalem Junction, Swathi Theatre centre, Sitara Junction, Milk project junction, KT Road, Canal road, Dabakotlu centre, BRTS Madhura Naga Junction, Jammi Chettu Centre, Skew Bridge in RL Nagar Katta, Satyam gari hotel centre, NTR University centre, Marymatha Church, Gunadala, Auto Nagar Bus Terminal etc are some of the notable centres.

On the other hand, as part of the summer action plan, the authorities have allocated Rs 49.90 lakh to Circle-1, Rs 64.39 lakh to Circle-2 and Rs 67.20 lakh for Circle-3. All the above water kiosks were set up by spending a portion of these allocated funds.

Meanwhile, the VMC also proposed to supply water to unserved and water scarcity areas with the help of water tankers. Five water tankers were pressed into service to supply drinking water to Old RR Peta, Mahanthipuram, Ambedkar Nagar Park, Jakkampudi, Bhavanipuram, Kabela, Sundarayya Nagar, Radha Nagar, Vambay Colony, New RR Peta, Sing Nagar, Kandrika, Payakapuram, Autonagar, Moghalrajpuram etc.

VMC Chief Engineer Prabhakar said that they are setting up water kiosks for the past few years. An action plan has been prepared with an amount of Rs 181.49 lakh from VMC general funds to meet deficiency/scarcity of water, he added.