Residents allege that the demolished ramp is only a small part of the story. Echoing the Mantri Developers’ view of ‘vested’ interests being the reason behind the ‘unjustified’ demolition, the spokesperson for the Mantri Greens residential apartment owners’ association said: “A lot of hue and cry over the widening of the Sampige Road appears to have started after the BBMP elections.”
Prabhakar Rao, the association president, said that the Palike Commissioner may have been ‘forced’ to give the order for demolition.
On Wednesday, the giant JCBs brought down not only the compound wall of the residential complex, but also partly damaged one of the borewells. The exit gate of Mantri Greens was also pulled down.
The Mantri Green residents, who constitute around 400 families, are having a hard time getting themselves accustomed to the sudden disarray caused, that that too without any prior notice. Rao said the residents felt they were pushed to the streets.
With the widening of the Sampige Road and Savitha Theatre Road, the main entrance of Mantri Greens will be pushed back by four metres, reducing the already congested parking lot, Rao said. The acquisition of a four-metre wide land by the BBMP will also lead to the demolition of the Chamundeshwari Temple located within the premises and reduction in the parking space for school buses ferrying children.
The Mantri residents claim this also poses a danger, since the children will have to use the widened Sampige road to board or alight from the bus.
“Instead of an integrated traffic management plan, they have found a short-term solution to a short-term problem,” said Rao. “There are walls of many other buildings which form part of the road widening plan, but have not been touched.”
The residents feel the road widening is unnecessary, as they perceive it was a hasty decision to solve temporary traffic problems. They believe that completing the work on the deviation road from Platform Road, which has slowed down due to the Metro work, will mitigate the traffic problem.
Meanwhile, Mantri Developers has promised to rebuild the demolished wall, the association said.