NARASARAOPET: Kotappakonda will host country’s first hill festival, Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said while adding that vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the three-day festival on January 19. He said that hill festival has been planned to spread awareness about environment and greenery among the public.Dr Kodela visited Kotappakonda on Wednesday and reviewed the progress of the ongoing works. He directed the officials to complete all the projects well in time before the hill festival. Speaking to reporters, Dr Kodela said that they had been worked to increase the greenery on Kotappakonda hill blocks even they faced acute water shortage. He said that they wanted to showcase Kotappakonda as an example to appeal people to switch to the green mode to protect the environment.“When we could convert Kotappakonda hill block, where there is no proper water facility and proper soil, into thick green forest, why not the people could improve the greenery in their neighbourhood,” he asked.Dr Kodela explained that they had also improved the revenues of the Kotappakonda temple with innovative programmes and facilities to the pilgrims. He said that the revenue of the temple shoot up to Rs 11 crore per year from mere Rs 8 lakh about 18 years ago.He said that they had studied the beach festivals organized in Visakhapatnam and Kakinada and readied different programmes for hill festival. He said that they would promote heritage, greenery, temple tourism during the hill festival. He said that they had constituted different committees to oversee the festival arrangements.He said that judges of Supreme Court would attend the programmes on second day of the festival and CM would attend the valedictory ceremony on January, 21. He said that food festival and cultural programmes would also be part of the hill festival. He said that they were making all out efforts complete the ropeway to Hill shrine before the hill festival.

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