VIZAGAPATAM
practically non-existent. To cross the rivers, carts had to be unloaded, taken off their wheels and ferried over on palmyra rafts.
The roads from Pá1konda to Párvatípur and to Chípurupalle, and the link between Vizagapatam and Anakápalle were next undertaken, but the want of funds occasioned by the Mutiny stopped their completion and they rapidly went to pieces. In 1860 the Deputy Chief Engineer said that ' with the exception of the road from Vizagapatam to Chittivalasa and thence to Vizianagram, there can hardly be said to be a thoroughly made road in the whole of the district.' In 1862 a little more activity was possible and (the Rája of Vizianagram having contributed Rs. 63,500 for the purpose) the roads from Vizagapatam and Vizianagram to Kásipuram, at the foot of the Anantagiri ghát referred to below, were undertaken. The idea at that time was to construct the main road to Jeypore up this ghát. In 1862-63 funds were allotted for the construction of the trunk road from Chittivalasa to Chicacole, 40 miles, and from Vizianagram to Chípurupalle; and thereafter progress was comparatively rapid.
The condition of the existing roads is usually excellent, the red soil which covers the greater part of the district providing them with a solid foundation. Their milestones are equally substantial, being all built into the sides of solid pillars of masonry lest perchance the metal contractors should move them about and so make illicit profits.
The chief lines of communication are the trunk road from páyakaraopéta to Chicacole, already mentioned, and the various cross roads which run from this to the sea on the one side and the gháts leading down from the Agency on the other. The map attached to this volume illustrates these better than any written description can hope to do. The more important of them are (a)that from Póavaram on the coast to Narasapatam, and so to Kondasanta at the foot of the Lammasingi ghát to the Golgonda hills, (b) from Púdimadaka, through Anakápalle and Chódavaram, to Mádgole at the foot of the Minamalúr ghát to the Mádgole hills, (c) from Vizagapatam to Bodára (Bowdara) on the way to the Anantagiri ghát, (d) from Bimlipatam, through Vizianagram, to Sálúr and the Pottangi ghát to Jeypore, (e) the branch from this latter which takes off from it at Rámabhadrapuram and runs to Párvatípur, where it bifurcates and leads into the Agency to Ráyagada on the one side and Gunupur on the other,(f) the road from Párvatípur, through Pálkonda, to Chicacole in Ganjám,and (g) that from Vizianagram to Pálkonda, which goes on to the
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