Welcome to 1998 edition of the report on the "Green City". Its amazing how much change there is everytime I go home. In this corner of Pennsylvania that I live in, not only does nothing seem to have grown in the past 6 years, more and more places are closed down or torn down. Exactly opposite is dear VSP.
I guess the highlight of the town now is the new 4 lane National Highway 5 [NH5]. The trucks breeze by at 100 km/hour. Right opposite the Maddilapalem AU teacher's quarters, is a junction of gigantic [American] proportions. The smoothness of this road contrasts with every other road in Vizag which has been dug up for the underground drainage project. There are huge concrete cylinders laying around everywhere on the beach road, MVP Colony, etc. The purification plant is being built near the Appu Ghar beach road going to GITAM college, in MVP Colony. The project is supposed to be done in a year.
More progress has reached Vizag in the shape of innumerable cellular phones [price has dropped to around Rs. 10,000] and departmental stores with scanners at checkout lanes and accepting all kinds of credit cards [Nilgiris in between CDR Diagnostics and Karachiwala near Siripuram].
Computer training is really big. A new institute for SAP training has been set up by one of our seniors from AU [CSE], L.N.V. Prasad. Its in Lawson's Bay and charges Rs. 3,00,000 for a 3 month course. Half of Vizag seems to want to get trained in SAP and come to USA, the rest wants to do People Soft.
A.U related news is that it has been white washed in honour of India's 50th anniversary of Independence and is brilliantly lighted at night, especially the Chemical Engineering buildings. Several AU, EEE professors have retired or left. Dr. Poornachandra Rao is the HOD of EEE. Dr. Ramamurthy and Dr. Goverdhana Rao are teaching in Vizag's 3rd engineering college, Gayathri. Dr. Koteshwara Rao of EEE passed away last year of liver cancer.
I had a chance to see the damage to the HPCL Plant. All the trees close to it have burnt down and the circular containers are broken or badly twisted. The stink near Convent Junction is extremely bad.
Speaking of convents, Timpany School has started teaching a separate CBSE branch in Junior school. I believe it takes Rs. 25,000 now as donation.
Finally among popular tourist spots, Kailasa Hill is doing great. There are all kinds of statues and lookouts all over this several square kilometer park. Here are a few pictures to show:
