Rajya Sabha MP and BJP leader G.V.L. Narasimha Rao on Thursday said that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu should apologise to the people of the city for the poor execution of the NAD flyover, as the work on it was started during his tenure.
Mr. Narasimha Rao inspected the flyover on Thursday and spoke to the traders, who have shops on the ground near the flyover, and with auto-rickshaw drivers atop the flyover and inquired about their problems. There was heavy traffic on the flyover though it was a quarter past 11.
Mr. Narasimha Rao said that he was told that some fatal accidents had already occurred on the flyover even before it was fully operational. The lower rotary works were yet to be completed. “I have not seen a flyover anywhere else in the country, on which the rotary has to be manned by four traffic policemen to prevent accidents. A rotary is built to ensure smooth flow of traffic, without the need for a traffic policeman to control the traffic,” the BJP leader said.
He opined that there seemed to be some problems with the construction of the flyover, which resulted in accidents. He wondered whether the YSR Congress government was overseeing the execution of the project at all. To a query, he said that he was unsure whether the flyover was being constructed with Central funds or by the State government with its own funds.
Mr. Narasimha Rao said that the Centre had selected Visakhapatnam city as one among the first three cities in India for development under the Smart Cities project and had sanctioned crores of rupees for a total of 70 projects. “We will take the issue to the notice of the Centre and Union Minister of Urban Development if Central funds were used for the project. The BJP would make the NAD flyover an issue in the GVMC polls,” he said.
