The plan of the civic body to make tunnel passages through the city’s hillocks seems to have hit a roadblock in the initial stage.
With not many options to improve the road network and bring down the traffic congestion on the roads that have little room for expansion, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation officials envisioned more tunnel roads on the lines of the one at Chittinagar.
The proposal is to construct a passage through the Moghalrajpuram hill for shortened road connectivity between the Christurajpuram road and the Eluru road.
The new way not only reduces the distance from about 3.5 km to less than 1 km for thousands of commuters everyday but also gives way for improvement of public transport connectivity. The length of the existing perimeter road to the hill is close to 8 km.
The civic body in June last called for consultancies to prepare a feasibility report and detailed project report by issuing a request for proposal (RFP) and has handed over the job to a big firm but the study is yet to begin even after more than six months.
“We are yet to decide the exact location where the tunnels are feasible. We need to look for the spot that needs less excavation process, short distance and other favourable factors. We have appointed a consultant through the open bid process and the feasibility study is yet to begin,” VMC chief engineer P. Adiseshu said.
However, the unavoidable challenges of the project and the current delay make the materialisation of the project uncertain.
“The feasibility study itself needs about ₹1.5 crore and the project cost could easily be more than ₹100 crore rupees which will be a huge burden,” an official said.
In addition, the corporation also needs to bear the brunt of relocating or compensating hundreds of families living on either side of the hill slope areas.
Also, a proposal for a tunnel through Indrakeeladri parallel to the Chittinagar one to connect One-Town and Bhavanipuram area was considered once.
The proposal for construction of tunnel road at Christurajpuram was also made decades ago by the then elected representatives after the Chittinagar tunnel road became a success.