Visakhapatnam: Located near Marripalem, Appayya Nagar Colony is a small exclusive locality with good social infrastructure and quiet setting.
If the highway expansion in the early 2000s has added some charm, entry of a few nationalised banks, supermarkets and other commercial establishments and repaired interior and service roads has changed the face of the locality in the last five years.
The high-rise buildings in the area interspersed with greenery don’t fail to impress the visitors. Residents still remember an erstwhile Punjabi dhaba in the neighbourhood, which catered to the food needs of lorry drivers and other highway commuters until the 1990s.
Constructed in 1992, the sprawling Sri Bhu Sametha Vijaya Venkateswara Swamy temple is the focal point of the locality.
Senior advocate and former office bearer of SBSVVS, Kuppili Muralidhar, told DC: “The colony was named after Appayya Dora to whom the land originally belonged. The layout was approved in 1974 under the name of the Central Government Cooperative Society.
The colony, which once exclusively housed Central government employees, has been observing a lot of alterations as many sold their plots and migrated to other locations,” he added.
“Both Maheswarulu from FCI and Koteswara Rao from Railways had played a key role in constructing the temple, which had gone into the hold of Endowments department in the ensuing years,” Mr Muralidhar said.
Several government offices were situated at a stone’s throw away from the colony – including Geological Survey Office, RTA Office, FCI office, R&B office, etc.
There were no major civic issues on the part of the residents to complain about other than mosquitoes.
A resident complained of unattended debris in one of the corners of the temple even after lodging a complaint with the GVMC.
A representative of the SBSVVS remembered how the area was secluded until the 90s with very minimalistic amenities, including transportation services. “It was considered as the outskirts of the and the highway commuters used to take a halt in the locality before resuming their travel. Only a few theatres and shops used to serve in the vicinity,” he said.
