MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.
of one in ten being cut. From Minamalúr, tracks run inland to Pádéru and Pádwa, and this ghát is the natural outlet for those parts. There are no cart-roads on the Máadgole hills. Though steep and not practicable for carts, the ghat is apparently much used, traffic returns 1[1] showing that over 800 carts a day pass over the bridge across the Sárada between Mádgole and Anakápalle.
Thirty miles north-east of the Minamalúr track is the Anantagiri (or Gálikonda) ghát. This is so called from the village of Anantagiri near the top, at which the Rája of Vizianagram has a coffee-plantation, and from the great Gálikonda hill which overlooks it and is referred to on p. 6. When the Jeypore estate was first entered, in 1863, and it became necessary to construct a road from its capital to the plains, the original idea was to follow a line running from Vizagapatam, through Srungavarapukóta to Kásipuram (41 miles); thence four miles to Kottúr at the foot of the hills; up this Anantagiri ghát, ascending through Ráyavalasa (about eight miles) and Anantagiri (three miles further); over the watershed of Gálikonda, four or five miles up an easy gradient; down to Janamguda on the 3,000 feet plateau by a steep descent; and thence on viá the Aruku valley, Pádwa, Handiput and Sogaru to Jeypore by the ghát starting down from Petta. The line from Kásipuram through Ráyavalasa was first traced by the old sibbandi force and improved upon by the company of Sappers then stationed in Jeypore, who also constructed part of the trace down the Petta ghát which had been marked out by Major Shaw-Stewart,R.E. In February 1863 the mortality and sickness among the Sappers was so heavy that Government recalled them. Lieutenant Smith, the first Assistant at Jeypore, navertheless continued the work and made the 56 miles from Jeypore into an excellent bullock track. From 1866, however, he devoted his energy and funds to improving the alternative track viá Pottangi and Sálúr, and the Anantagiri ghát was abandoned for many years.
The idea of completing it was revived in 1885 by Mr. H. G.Turner, the then Agent, who was much impressed by the capabilities of the Aruku and Pádwa country, the produce of which had no outlet. He intended to take the road from Sogaru to Jaitgiri, where it was to bifurcate, one branch running down to the north of the Malkanagiri taluk and the other through Dasmatpur into Rámagiri taluk. He began work on it in earnest in 1885-86, starting from Bodára (Bowdara), where the roads from Vizagapatam
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- ↑ 1 Kindly furnished by Mr. P. B. Arbuthnot, Local Fund Engineer.
