Tirupati elevated bridge falls victim to ‘name game’

Bridge built under Smart City project to provide direct access to Tirumala-bound vehicles and avoid traffic snarls in city; with the project completed by over 90%, TSCCL has paid ₹204 crore towards its share, while the TTD has released ₹383 crore

Political ‘name game’ has left everyone confused after ‘Srinivasa Setu’, the elevated corridor project built under the Smart City project to provide a direct access to Tirumala-bound vehicles and avoid traffic snarls in the city, was renamed to ‘Garuda Varadhi’ recently.

The Tirupati Smart City Corporation Limited (TSCCL) and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) had decided to share the expenses of the project originally costing ₹650 crore, with the sharing pattern fixed at ₹215 crore (33%) and ₹435 crore (67%) respectively. With the project completed by over 90%, the TSCCL has paid ₹204 crore towards its share, while the TTD has released ₹383 crore so far.

Name game

It was during the erstwhile Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime in 2014-19 that the work started and the bridge was unofficially named ‘Garuda Varadhi’ (the bridge of Garuda), as a metaphor to the route taking the devotees to Tirumala.

With the change of guard in 2019, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government once again performed ‘Bhumi Puja’ for the project, though pillars had already been erected almost throughout the stretch. The then MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy announced that the bridge would be named as ‘Srinivasa Setu’ (Srinivasa’s bridge) and even got a resolution passed in the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) to this effect.

Though the project came to a grinding halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, it started resuming on a sluggish pace and was finally brought to use in phases.

With the alliance government (TDP-BJP-JSP) back in power in 2024, the newly-formed TTD trust board, at its maiden meeting held recently, resolved to rename the bridge as ‘Garuda Varadhi’, bringing the issue back to the proverbial square one.

Eyebrows raised

While the project was jointly executed by the TTD and TSCCL, it is not yet clear on either side if a partner can unilaterally name or rename the project. Strangely, the MCT, though not directly involved in the project, made a resolution to name it as ‘Srinivasa Setu’.

It is indeed a norm to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) such as TSCCL for construction of such projects and later hand them over to the local civic body, say, MCT in this case. But the MCT council jumped the guns to give it a name, even before it got control over the asset. Similarly, eyebrows are raised over the TTD’s right to unilaterally restore the old name.

With the local leaders going gaga over the name, the Smart City project records continue to mention the bridge simply as ‘elevated corridor project’.

Published - November 21, 2024 06:51 pm IST