JEO INSPECTS GHAT ROAD WITH IIT EXPERTS TEAM

TIRUMALA, NOVEMBER 12: Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju along with team of IIT Experts and TTD Engineering officials visited the vulnerable site where boulders and trees had fallen in the second Ghat road due to cyclonic rains few days ago.

After inspection speaking to media persons the IIT New Delhi Experts Prof. KS Rao and Prof.Narasimha Rao said, there is no need for panicky about the fall of boulders as it is most usual feature in hilly areas. “As the rain water was being absorbed by the rocks since several centuries at one point of time the Rock soils bound to loose and fall. But there are several technical constructional remedies to overcome this problem”, they added.

Adding further the IIT expert duo said, they have identified four major vulnerable places and 20 very minor risky areas where there is scope of Boulder fall. “With rock bolting, rock anchoring and breast wall construction techniques we can arrest the fall of rocks. This technique we have already used in 2005 near Bhashyakarla Sannidhi in second Ghat and also in first Ghat in the same year. So in a week’s time we can resolve this problem and come out with a permanent solution”, they observed.

Meanwhile Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju said, the temple management has stalled second ghat road from the past few days and opened up the link road route keeping in view the safety of the pilgrims.

“We have invited the IIT experts for their observations and we act accordingly. We have also invited L and T on how to lay or repair second ghat to make it an incident proof in future. A clear picture will be drawn only after negotiating with experts further”, he maintained.

CE Sri Chandrasekhar Reddy, SE II Sri Ramachandra Reddy and others were also present.