Vijayawada: Destitute individuals in the city will soon be provided new asylum, as plans are underway to build four new night shelters in Vijayawada. Built to accommodate 200 people each, these shelters would provide roof to a total of 800 people here.
Currently, Vijayawada has four shelter homes with 350 beds in Hanuman Pet, Ranigarithota, and other areas, which are managed by NGOs.
P Venkatanarayana, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) project officer (urban community development), told TOI that the civic body will construct the new shelters using funds from the Centre’s National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) 2.0.
“The civic body has received 10 crore in NULM funds from the Centre. Each night shelter will be spread across 2,500 sqft and will be equipped with all basic amenities. The construction cost for each shelter is estimated at 2.5 crore, totaling 10 crore,” he stated.
Elaborating on the construction plan, Venkatanarayana said, “VMC has identified locations for the new shelters and finalised two sites one at Rajaka Kalyana Mandapam in the Satyanarayana Puram area and another on RTC workshop road in Vidyadharapuram. The process to finalise the site for the fourth shelter is underway, and will be completed soon.”
According to the Scheme of Shelters for Urban Homeless (SUH), for every one lakh urban residents, there should be at least one permanent community shelter with a capacity of 100 people. However, Vijayawada currently has only four night shelters catering to 350 people.
The official informed that a detailed project report concerning the new shelters is being prepared, and the finalisation of sites will be completed by March. Construction works are expected to be completed by Aug. The four new night shelters are set to be commissioned by Sept,” Venkatanarayana added.
