Flyovers and Visakhapatnam district don't go along quite well, it seems. While the 1.6 km flyover from Asilmetta to Dondaparthy at a whopping Rs 90 crore in Vizag city took over five years to be completed, another flyover project, which incidentally is a rail over bridge located about 60 kms from the city near Yelamanchili, is witnessing a similar delay.The flyover in question is the one connecting Kukkarapalli Junction on the NH-16 to Yelamanchili, for which the works were started three years ago. Spread over a length of only 300 metres, the construction of the flyover is moving at snail's pace. Till date, the roads and buildings department has completed building 18 pillars for the Rs 18 crore flyover project and connected just five pillars with a road. The road connection between the remaining 13 pillars are screaming for completion from residents of Yelamanchili as well as the neighbouring areas of Kukkarapalli.Confirming to TOI, Yelamanchili assistant engineer of R&B department KV Rama Rao said, "We have completed around 40% of the construction work and the remaining work will be completed within the next six to eight months."Explaining the problems faced by locals, Nookaraju Gollavilli of Kukkarapalli said, "The flyover is actually a rail over bridge, which was planned so that people going to Yelamanchili don't have to to be held up at the near by railway gate every time a train passes by. However, the work on the project was stopped some six months ago and is yet to resume."Another resident of Yelamanchili, Ramanababu A said, "The route is used by a large number of buses connecting Yelamanchili to Anakapalle and even by school buses, which pick up students from nearby places and take them to school in Yelamanchili. We have to wait at least once in a day near the railway gate due to the high frequency of trains on this route." He said, "If they can't build the flyover, they should at least repair the road below it. Even that has not been repaired for three years now."Expressing his anger at the delay, N Kunisetti said, "It is such a small bridge. We don't understand, why it takes such a long time to complete such a small bridge." "On an average, we have at least 100 trains including passenger as well as goods trains passing on this route. So we usually have to close the gate at least four times in an hour," said the railway gatekeeper at the crossing of the road. R&B department sources said shortage of sand, land acquisition issues near the flyover as well as delay by the contractor were the reasons for the delay in completing the project.

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