Visakhapatnam: Located on the outskirts of the city near the internation cricket stadium and national highway, Baba Nagar is one of the serene housing locations in Vizag. Due to a sudden spurt in the land prices in the city, many people have the made the colony a home for themselves in the last couple of years. However, inadequate social infrastructure has been taking sheen off the colony.
Dokuparthi Narasimha Murthy, a resident of the colony, explained how the area has shot into the limelight after the expansion of the national highway and the proposal of IT SEZ in Madhurawada.
"Despite the high-rise buildings competing with each other for attention, there is no sync between development and social infrastructure in various areas on the outskirts and the same is the case with Baba Nagar.
Several pockets of our colony still do not have proper internal roads. Many residents are getting together and giving their individual plots for development into apartments," he added. Given the rapid development in the city, many real estate dealers bought lands in the area and built huge apartments.
When asked how the apartment culture has changed the relations between the residents, Mr. Murthy explained, "Though the green space has shrunk over the years, there are still many individual houses and a sense of community. The residents would readily come forward for any common issue," he added.
As the water resources that supply water to PM Palem and other surrounding areas have dried up, the residents in the colony said water was being supplied on alternative days by the GVMC.
R.V.G.R. Raju, a retired employee in the colony, complained that the underground drainage system gets blocked every now and then. "People in the colony are also facing problem due to stray dogs moving in the area. There is a lot of scope for development and we are also thinking about how infrastructure in our colony can be developed."
