For people travelling from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh, especially to Vijayawada, a pit stop at 7 Midway Plaza at Suryapet is a must. It was first established in 2009 with the aim of providing hygienic restrooms on NH-65. Why Suryapet? Raj Yarlagadda, chairman of People’s Combine, which is active in the service sector, narrates a childhood memory: “The travel time by bus from my village at Nujiveedu to Vijayawada was 60 minutes. The bus would stop midway for soda, water, cool drinks etc. So when we, as a company, observed the lack of hygienic rest rooms on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway, we chose Suryapet because it is exactly midway. Initially, our focus was on washrooms, food was secondary.”
What’s in a name
