Demolition drive continues in Mahadevapura, surrounding areas

The BBMP's stormwater drain encroachment removal drive continued on Thursday with JCBs razing demarcated buildings across the city.

In Mahadevapura, a single-storey building was demolished at Shantiniketan Layout. Similarly, at Papaiah Reddy Layout, the JCBs brought down portions of a four-storey building that was constructed on a rajakaluve.

"In both the cases, the residents were served notices and evacuated before the demolition. However, at Papaiah Reddy Layout, the four-storey building could not be completely demolished because using the JCB would have caused damage to adjoining buildings," a senior BBMP official said.

Dr Trilok Chandra, BBMP Special Commissioner (Mahadevapura), said the other encroachments in the area will soon be removed. "Between Shantiniketan Layout and Papaiah Reddy Layout, a 500 m stretch of rajakaluve has been encroached upon. I have instructed the officials to remove all of them at the earliest," he said, and directed the officials to reconstruct the rajakaluve as soon as the encroachments are removed.

This apart, encroachment removal also continued at Greenwood Residency on Sarjapur Road where officials removed most of the slabs that occupied the SWD. A bridge constructed over the rajakaluve behind the Marathahalli police station was also removed on Thursday.