Visakhapatnam: The vacant port in Narasimhanagar, Akkayyapalem has become a dumping ground with locals throwing waste, including debris of old construction material. The civic apathy of colony residents has turned into a nightmare for people living adjacent to the open plot.
Between the Navy quarters and private buildings of Narasimhanagar, there is a big land that belongs to the Port. Heaps of construction debris, and other waste material has piled up over the years due to negligence of neighbouring households. Now, families in the surrounding buildings are suffering from the dust and other problems.
“Over the past few years, the open plot has filled up with garbage, cement blocks, sand, concrete waste and broken tiles. We don’t exactly know when people started throwing the waste here. But, most of it was dumped by the labourers from construction projects nearby. The contractors can't find a vacant space like this anywhere else,” said B. Lakshmi, who lives next to the site.
She further said, “During the last rains, snakes came into our homes from the filthy open land. Although there is no such threat nowadays heaps of debris act as steps for thieves to enter our apartment. Despite installing grills in the balcony, we are afraid of the thieves.”
I. Yashwanth, a resident of the area, claims that ward councillor Mutyala Naidu has never bothered to respond to their problems. If he had complained to the port officials, they would have initiated some action to solve this problem. “A compound wall and clearance of the existing garbage will not take much time or money. Negligence of the authorities has made this a big mess,” he said.
Narasimhanagar has grown as a commercial and residential hub in the past three decades with several banks, offices, schools, colleges, vehicle showrooms and other commercial complexes. Apart from apartments and individual houses, the colony also has residential quarters of Visakhapatnam Port Trust and Indian Navy. The township is located next to NH-5 and is home to 15,000-16,000 families.
