Pilgrim city gets a facelift

Tirupati: The TDP’s Mahanadu turned a blessing in disguise for the pilgrim city as it is getting a facelift with its roads, more so the roads leading to Nehru Municipal High School (NMHS), the venue of the TDP meet, refurbished and the dividers painted looking new.

While the encroachments on the pavements were hurriedly removed, resulting in resistance in some places from the shopkeepers, leading to altercation on Wednesday.

The arterial KT Road from SBI Tilak Road branch to Kapila Theertham junction and Harerama Harekrishna Road were refurbished with BT coating while road widening works, repairs to the damaged roads and potholes on the roads including Bhagavan Mahaveer Road from town club to Alipiri, leading to Mahanadu were taken up on war-footing in the city.

The residents of various colonies in the KT road area were immensely happy with the approach roads connecting the main road and their colonies which were pending for more than two years were completed in two days ahead of Mahanadu. It is needless to say that the denizens who were harried with the potholes were pleased to see the TTD Engineering and Municipal Corporation departments attending on them on several roads in the city.

The TTD and Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) saw that the dividers on all the arterial roads were newly painted while the fused out streetlights were replaced promptly by workers engaged in more numbers to complete the task well before the start of Mahanadu.

A youth Mohan and an elderly person Raju said that despite several petitions and representations to MCT, the small road work connecting the main road and the sub-road to the colonies in NGO colony, Ramachandra nagar and other areas was kept pending for two to three years.

“We were surprised to see the pending works completed and the potholes repaired in one stroke and that too just in two to three days, thanks to Mahanadu,’’ they said, amply revealing the benefit the TDP conclave brought to the people here.

However, the removal of encroachments by the municipal corporation staff on the pavements all along the Bhagavan Mahaveer Road met with resistance from the shopkeepers who objected to it first but later relented. The corporation staff ensured that the shopkeepers removed their sign boards, benches etc. put up on the pavement, making it free for the pedestrians and to avoid congestion on the road.

Meanwhile, Rayalaseema Porata Samithi (RPS) Chittoor district convener P Naveen Kumar Reddy criticised TTD and MCT for spending public money for Mahanadu.

Speaking to the media, he alleged that the TTD was forced to spend Rs 40 lakh for BT roads and added that the dividers which were painted only some 7 months back for the annual Brahmotsavam last year were again painted splurging money offered by the devotees to Lord Venkateswara, hurting their
sentiments.

“Mahanadu is a political party function. How could the TTD and MCT spend the public funds for it,’’ he said, objecting to the
officials causing a dent on the exchequer.