Work on widening of IG Road begins

Officials hope that building owners will vacate the place voluntarily

The marking has been done to 50 ft on both sides from the middle of the road, which means that 100 ft extension of IG Road is being planned. Parking space and footpath will be given greater importance, informed sources.
The residents and building owners were horrified because the marking works were done during the night.
It is said that the marking works were taken up in the night so as to keep the traffic moving swiftly in the day. After the marking works, it is said that DC will start the eviction process soon.

Eviction
District administration is hoping that the building owners, vendors and residents will vacate the place voluntarily to make way for road widening. If this does not happen then it is determined to get them evicted by means of court order. Along with the road widening, shifting of the jail and KSRTC bus stand situated near the road will also be taken up. It is said that about 75 per cent of building, barring Mathias Towers and Nagalakshmi theatre will be pulled down.

Compensation
Though there have been talks about widening of I G Road, there has been so far no talks about providing compensation to the buildings that will be pulled down to facilitate widening.

The existing Indian Road Congress (IRC) norms specify that there should be no building built at a distance of 21 ft from the middle point of the road. Hence it is said that compensation will be provided only to those buildings which were built before the enforcement of IRC norms while those built after will not be given any compensation.

“We have built the building after seeking permission from the Town Municipal Council. We pay taxes we are supposed to pay to the Government regularly. Court has asked the DC to scrutinise all the documents and talk about providing compensation,” said a owner of one of the buildings in IG Road.

DC’s meet
Deputy Commissioner will convene a meeting of all the elected representatives, building owners, vendors and officials to discuss over the aspects of widening.
Marking has been done for 50 ft widening but 40 ft widening will be done at any cost. DC has tried to explain the problems of traffic faced in the city to the residents of IG Road and convince them. The road widening works will be taken up during December last week or January first week, said MLA C T Ravi
Widening of IG Road has been a longstanding demand of the citizens who were overwhelmed by the widening and beautification of MG Road.
Citizens had submitted several memorandum to District police informing that widening IG Road is a must considering the density of traffic and the frequent blocks that have been happening there.
DH News Service