It has been 7 years since I have left my home town. Every time I go back to visit, I barely recognize the city. Every other block at major points in city has either a brand new shopping mall or an apartment complex.
The city is undergoing major transformation at all levels and areas.
I remember when I visited PMPalem 5 or 6 years ago and there were barely any apartments there. Now, its apartment after apartment building and you can hardly see regular houses anymore.
Vizag hosts just over 20 Lakh population as per the latest census. In 2001, the population of the city was 12 Lakh. That’s almost a two fold increase in 10 years. A part of that ofcourse came from the expansion of the GVMC borders making Vizag the biggest city area wise in India.
I think everyone agrees that the city has lost the small city charm it had few years ago.
The effect of this population boom is more apparent because the city has done little or nothing to accommodate the immigrants arriving from all over the county. Our roads didn’t get any bigger, no major project have been undertaken in time. And now that the complex junction has been closed, the traffic all around the area is congested to say the least. The flyover project which has been going on for years now, and shows no sign of completion is the only major change in the city.
The highway NH5 which, after the expansion almost 10 years ago, was a nice free road to go on is just so backed up that its better to go around the highway. The trip to the airport has become so slow and frustrating, the one traffic light at the NAD junction take more than 20 minutes to go across!
So before we ask for more development, more companies moving to the city and before we ask for the airport to be given International status, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, is the city ready?
