Mosque wall demolished to ease bottleneck near Johnson Market

Better days are ahead for commuters as one of the major bottlenecks in the city is set to be cleared.

On Sunday, the compound wall of the famous Shia mosque, Masjid-e-Askari near Johnson Market, was demolished to facilitate the widening of Hosur Road. A little over 1000 sq ft of the mosque land was handed over to the BBMP as per its request.

Mir Ali Jawad, the president of the Masjid-E-Askari and Shia Graveyard Managing Committee, said: "The compound wall of the mosque was causing a lot of problems for traffic moving between Brigade Road and Hosur Road. For the common good and to help the public, we have demolished the wall to ease traffic on the road."

The committee has already parted with 4,000 sq ft of graveyard land. "With the portion of the mosque given today, we have given 5,000 sq ft for the road-widening," Jawad added.

At a function held for a formal handover of the land and for demolishing the mosque wall, Mayor R Sampath Raj welcomed the decision of Shia Muslims to part with the land of the mosque. The BBMP began the demolition of the wall in the presence of the mayor and the local MLA, N A Harris.

"This is one of the major roads in the city and lakhs of commuters use it every day. After the road-widening, the traffic congestion will be reduced to a great extent. We greatly appreciate this gesture of the committee," Sampath Raj said.

Jawad said: "We requested the BBMP to name Vellara Junction after Sir Mirza Ismail who was a great administrator and had contributed greatly to the beautification of Bengaluru." He added that they also requested for naming the upcoming metro station near Vellara Junction after Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. "The committee's application for transferable development right (TDR) is in progress. We have requested the BBMP to push this to the higher authorities," Jawad said.

Harris said he would recommend to the chief minister to grant separate land to the committee for building another mosque.

The BBMP, which came up with the road-widening project about five years ago, is expected to start the process on Monday.